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MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


SELECTED  AND    CLASSIFIED  BY 

BENJAMIN   S.  CATCHINGS 

OF  THE  BAR  OF  NEW  YORK  CITY 


Copyright  1907 

by 
Benjamin  S.  Catching! 


The  Nation  Press,  New  York 


\ 


6507- 


DEDICATION 

Believing  that  our  political  organizations 
have  become  machines  which  register  the 
opinions  and  interests  of  the  few,  and  that 
they  have  drifted  far  from  the  principles 
upon  which  our  Commonwealth  is  founded, 
I  have  dedicated  this  compilation  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  man  who  stands  most  free  from 
party  reins  and  strives  to  do  his  duty  as  he 
sees  it  —  who  in  his  ideals  follows  nearer  the 
t^  rugged  lines  of  Jeffersonian  Democracy  than 

~m  many  of  its  boasted  adherents  —  and  to  the 

success  of  these  principles  and  of  Charles 
E.  Hughes,  Governor  of  New  York,  this 
work  is  respectfully  dedicated. 

BENJAMIN  S.  CATCHINGS. 
o 
o 

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CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction  .........  vii 

Chapter     I.     The  Negro  and  Slavery  i 

2.     Loyalty  and  Secession          ...  7 

-3.     The  Principles  of  Thomas  Jefferson      .  18 

4.     Religious  Views 76 

-5,     Educational  Views 81 

6.  Summary  View  of  the  Rights  of  British 

America        .....  102 

7.  Basic  Principles  of  Government      .         .  106 

8.  General  Views 115 

9.  The  Constitution 124 

10.     The  Judiciary 137 

n.     Foreign  Relations 141 

12.  The  Tariff 149 

13.  Theories  of  Government          .         .         .  155- 
• 

14.  Dangers  to  the  Republic      .         .         .  167 

15.  Republican  Principles     ....  171 

1 6.  The  Press   ...:..  177 

17.  Miscellaneous  Extracts  ....  182 

Appreciations  of  Thomas  Jefferson  .         ,         .        ix — xxii 


*  The  marginal  references  locate  the 
beginning  of  the  letter  from  which 
each  selection  is  made  or  the  volume 
and  page  upon  which  it  can  be 
found  in  "The  Writings  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,"  published  by  the  Jefferson 
Memorial  Association  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  which  should  be  found  in 
any  public  library. — [ED. 


INTRODUCTION 


THOUGHTS  which  seize  the  heart  and  mind  of  men 
or  Nations,  which  lift  them  above  the  necessary 
strife  and  sordid  struggle  of  life  and  sweep  them 
headlong  into  the  accomplishment  of  some  great  public  need ; 
thoughts  which  fill  a  few  scattered  colonies  with  light  and 
life,  and  spread  with  telling  force  into  other  lands  and  other 
worlds,    driving    kings    of    a    thousand    years   from  their 
thrones — these  and  all  like  them  are  the  master  thoughts  of 
our  time  and  race. 

Thomas  Jefferson  is  known  as  a  leader  in  the  thought 
of  his  age.  His  principles  command  the  attention  of  every 
political  school,  and  it  is  necessary  that  all  should  have 
ready  access  to  them.  Thanks  and  recognition  ar*>  HUP  tr> 
The  Jefferson  Memorial  Association  and  all  others  who 
have  aided  in  gathering  together  his  letters  and  papers. 
For  it  was  upon  these  that  Mr.  Jefferson  relied  for  the 
perpetuation  of  his  ideals.  In  our  days  of  concentrated 
effort,  it  is  not  possible  for  the  average  man  to  wade  through 
twenty  volumes  of  detail  and  routine  correspondence. 

To  meet  this  need,  the  following  selections,  given  in 
his  own  language,  arranged  and  classified  for  ready  ref- 
erence, and  taken  impartially  from  some  ten  thousand  pages 
of  documents  and  letters,  are  respectfully  submitted.  It  is 
my  belief  that  among  them  will  be  found  for  each  reader 
some  stirring  call  to  arms,  some  bugle  blast  of  thought, 
which  will  lead  to  renewed  exertion,  higher  ideals,  and 
more  earnest  service.  It  is  my  hope  that  through  them 


vn 


INTRODUCTION. 

there  will  come  a  deeper  and  better  understanding  of  a  man 
whose  entire  life  was  devoted  to  the  disinterested  service  of 
his  people,  and  who  is  to-day  recognized  as  the  apostle  and 
advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  mass  of  the  people  as  against 
the  special  interests  of  the  few.  And  with  this  introduc- 
tion I  submit  for  your  thought  and  consideration,  this 
edition  of  the 

"Master  Thoughts  of  Thomas  Jefferson." 

BENJ.  S.  CATCHINGS. 
New  York,  May  15,  1907. 


FROM  A  LETTER  TO  WILLIAM 
JOHNSON,  1823 

ON  OUR  part    .     .     .    we  are  depending  on  Truth 
to  make  itself  known     .     .     .     my  letters  (all  pre- 
served) will  furnish  the  daily  occurrences  and  views. 
.     .     .     These  will  command  more  conviction  than  anything 
I  could  have  written,  after  my  retirement,  no  day  having 
ever  passed  without  a  letter  to  somebody ;  written, 
15.  420.  too,  in^the  moment  and  in  the  warmth  and  fresh- 
jness  nf  facf  and  jfeeling, they  will  carry  internal 
evidence  that  what  they  breathe  is  yen  nine.     .     .     . 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


vm 


Master  Thoughts 

of 

Thomas    Jefferson 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  NEGRO  AND  SLAVERY 

AS  FAR  as  I  can  judge,  from  the  experiments  which 
"have  been  made  to  give  liberty  to,  or  rather  aban- 
don,  persons  whose  habits  have  been  formed  jh 
slavery  is  like  abandoning,  children.    Many  Quakers  in  Vir- 
ginia seated  their  slaves  on  their  land  as  tenants ;  they  were 
distant  from   me     .     .     .     and     ...     I  cannot 
19.  41.  say  whether  they  were  to  pay  rent  in  money  or  a 
share  of  the  produce,  but  I  remember  the  landlord 
was  obliged  to  plan  their  crops  for  them,  to  direct  all  their 
operations    during   every    season,    and   according    to    the 
weather ;  but  what  is  more  afflicting  he  was  bound  to  watch 
them  daily  and  almost  constantly  to  make  them  work,  and 
even  to  whip  them.     A  man's  moral  sense  must  be  very 
strong  if  slavery  does  not  make  him  a  thief.  I  He  who  is 
"permitted  by  law  to  have  no  property  of  his  own""can   with 
difficulty  conceive  that  property  is  founded  in  anything  but 
forcej  These  slaves  chose  to  steal  from  their  neighbors, 
became  public  nuisances,  and  in  most  instances  were  re- 
duced to  slavery  again.    (Letter  to  Edward  Bancroft,  1788.) 

MR.  JOHN  ADAMS  observed    .     .     .    that  jt, was 
of  no  consequence  by  what  name  you  called  your 
people,  whether  by  that  of  '  freemenT7~or  "slaves'^ 
that  in  some  countries  the,  laboring  poor  were  CALLED 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ireemen.  in  others  they  were  called  slaves;  biiLJhat  the 
difference  as  to  the  state  was  imaginary  only.    What 
i.  41.  matters  it  whether  a  landlord,  employing  ten  labor- 
ers on  his  farm,  gives  them  annually  as  much  money 
as  will  buy  them  the  necessaries  of  life,  or  gives  them 
those  necessaries  at  short  hand     .     .     .     that  the  condi- 
tion of  the  laboring  poor  in  many  countries,  that  of  the 
fishermen  particularly  of  the  Northern  States,  is  as  abject 
as  that  of  slaves.     .     .     . 

THE  FIRST  establishment  (settlement)   in  Virginia 
which  became  permanent,  was  made  in  1607.     I 
have  found  no  mention  of  negroes  in  the  colony 
until  about  1650.    The  first  brought  here  as  slaves  were  by 
a  Dutch  ship;  after  which  the  English    commenced    the 
trade,  and  continued  it  until  the  Revolutionary  War. 
i.  58.  That  suspended,  ipso  facto,  their   importation    for 
the  present,  and  the  business  of  the  war  pressing 
constantly  on  the  legislature,  this  subject  was  not  acted  on 
until  the  year  '78,  when  I  brought  in  a  bill  to  prevent  their 
further  importation.     This  passed  without  opposition,  and 
stopped  the  increase  of  the  evil  by  importation,  leaving  to 
further  efforts  its  final  eradication. 

THE  BILL  on  the  subject  of  slaves  was  a  mere  di- 
gest of  the  existing  laws  respecting  them,  with- 
out an  intimation  of  a  plan  for  a  future  and  gen- 
eral emancipation.     It  was  thought  better  that  this  should 
be  kept  back,  and  attempted  only  by  way  of  amendment, 
whenever  the  bill  should  be  brought  in.    The  princi- 
i.  73.  pies  of  the  amendment  were,  however,  agreed  on, 
that  is  to  say,  the  freedom  of  all  born  after  a  cer- 
tain day,  and  deportation  at  a  proper  age.     But  it  was 
found  that. the  public  mind  would  not_yjet  bear  the  proposi- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

tion,  nor  will  it  bear  it  even  at  this  day.  Yet  the  day  is  not 
distant  when  it  must  bear  it  and  adopt  it  or  worse  will  fol- 
low. Nothing  is  more  certainly  written  in  the  book  of  fate 
than  that  these  people  are  to  be  free;  nor  is  it  less  certain 
that  the  two  races,  equally  free,  cannot  live  in  the  sajme 
government.  Nature,  habit,  opinion  have  drawn  indelible" 
lines  of  distinction  between  them.^It  is  still  in  our  power 
to  direct  the  process  of  emancipation  and  deportation, 
peaceably,  and  in  such  slow  degree  as  that  the  evil  will 
wear  off  insensibly,  and  their  place  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up 
by  free  white  laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to 
force  itself  on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect 
held  up.  We  should  in  vain  look  for  example  in  the  Span- 
ish deportation  or  depletion  of  the  Moors.  This  precedent 
would  fall  far  short  of  our  case.  (Autobiography,  1821.) 


THE  WHOLE  commerce  between  master  and  slave 
is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  pas- 
sions, the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one 
part,  and  degrading  submission  on  the  other.    Our  children 
see  this,  and  learn  to  imitate  it ;  for  man  is  an  imitative  ani- 
mal.    This  quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education  in 
2.  225.  him.     From  his  cradle  to  his  grave  he  is  learning 
to  do  what  he  sees  others  do.     If  a  parent  could 
find  no  motive  either  in  his  philanthropy  or  his  self-love  for 
restraining  the  intemperance  of  passion  towards  his  slave, 
it  should  always  be  a  sufficient  one  that  his  child  is  present. 
But  generally  it  is  not  sufficient.     The  parent  storms,  the 
child  looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the 
same  airs  in  the  circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  aloose  to  the 
worst  of  passions,  and  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily  ex- 
ercised in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it  with  odious 
peculiarities.    The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

his  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  circumstances. 
And  with  what  execration  phnuJH  the  statesman  hp  Igadedj 
who,  permitting  one-half  the  citizens  thus  to  trample  on 
the  rights  of  the  other,  transforms  these  into  despots,  ana* 
these  into  enemies,  destroys  the  morals  o£ 


and  the  amor  patriae  of  the  other.  7"  .  .  With  the 
morals  of  the  people  their  industry  is  destroyed.  For  in  a 
warm  climate  no  man  will  labor  for  himself  who  can  make 
another  labor  for  him.  This  is  so  true,  that  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  sfeves  a  very  small  proportion  indeed  are  ever 
•Seen  to  labor.  And  can  the  liberties  of  a  nation  be  thought 
secure  when  we  have  removed  their  very  basis,  a  convic- 
tion in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  these  liberties  are  of 
the  gift  of  God  ?  That  they  are  not  to  be  violated  but  with 
his  wrath?  Indeed,  I  tremble  for  my  country  when  I  re- 
flect  that  God  is  just;  that  His  justice  cannot  sleep  tof- 
jiver;  that  considering  numbers,  nature,  and  natural  mean's, 
only  a  revolution  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of 
situation  is  among  possible  events ;  that  it  may  becomeTproB- 
able  by  supernatural  interi'erence!~"  The  Almighty  has  no 
attribute  which  can  take  sides  with  us  in  such  a  contest 
.  .  .  the  spirit  of  the  master  is  ^hating,  that  of  the  slave 
rising  from  the  dust,  his  condition  mollifying,  tne  way  1 
hope  preparing,  under  the  auspices  of  heaven,  for  a  totaT 
emancipation,  and  that  this  is  disposed,  inthe^brder  "of" 
events,  to  be  with  the  consent  of  the  masters^  rather  than  by 
their  extirpation.  (Notes  on  Virginia,  1781.) 


UNHAPPILY  it  is  a  case  for  which  both  parties  re- 
quire long  and  difficult  preparation.  The  mind  of 
the  master  is  to  be  apprised    by    reflection,  and 
strengthened  by  the  energies  of  conscience,  against  the  ob- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON' 

stacks  of  self-interest  to  an  acquiescence  in  the  rights  of 
others,  that  of  the  slave  is  to  be  prepared  by  in- 
14.  296.  struction  and  habit  for  self-government,  and  for 
the  honest  pursuits  of  industry  and  social  duty. 
Both  of  these  courses  of  preparation  take  time,  and  the 
former  must  precede  the  latter  .  .  .  but  it  will  yield 
in  time  to  temperate  and  steady  pursuit,  to  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  human  mind  and  the  advancement  oi  science. 
We  are  not  in  a  world  ungoverned  by  the  laws  and  the  power 
of  a  superior  agent.  Our  efforts  are  in  His  hand,  and  di- 
rected by  it ;  and  He  will  give  them  their  effect  in  His  own 
time.  Where  the  disease  is  most  deeply  seated  there  it  will 
be  slowest  in  eradication.  In  the  Northern  States  it  was 
merely  superficial,  and  easily  corrected.  In  the  Southern  if 
is  incorporated  with  the  whole  system,  and  requires  time, 
patience,  and  perseverance  in  the  curative  process:  JThatjt 
may  finally  be  effected  and  its  progress  hastened  will  be 
(my)  last  and  fondest  prayer.  (To  David  Barrow,  1815.) 

I  CONGRATULATE  you,  fellow   citizens,  on   the   ap- 
proach of  the  period  at  which  you  may  interpose  your 
authority  constitutionally,  to  withdraw  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  from-  all-further  participation    in    those 
violations  of  human  rights  which  have  been  so  long  con- 
tinued upon  the  unoffending  inhabitants  of  Africa, 
3.  421    and  which  the  morality,  the  reputation,  and  the 
best  interests^  of  our  country  have  long  been  eager 
to  proscribe. 


HERE  (in  Virginia)  crime  is  scarcely  heard  of  .... 
Our  only  blot  is  becoming  less  offensive  by  the 
great  improvement  in  the  condition  and  civiliza- 
tion of  that  race   (negro),  who  can    now    be    more    ad- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

vantageously  compared,  in  their  situation,  with  that  of  the 
laborers  of  Europe.  Still  it  is  a  hideous  blot,  as 
15.  468.  well  from  the  .  .  .  peculiarities  of  the  race, 
-as  that,  with  them,  physical  compulsion  to  action 
must  be  substituted  for  the  moral  necessity  which  constrains 
the  free  laborers  to  work  equally  hard.  We  feel  and  de- 
plore it  morally  and  politically,  and  we  look  without  entire 
despair  to  some  redeeming  means  not  yet  specifically  fore- 
seen .  .  .  their  emigration  to  the  westward  lightens  the 
difficulty  by  dividing  it,  and  renders  it  more  practicable  on 
the  whole.  (To  William  Short,  1823.) 


"V  "TT  ^HAT  a  stupendous,  what  an  incomprehensible 

\/\/       machine  is  man!  who  can  pnHnrp  tQJk  famine, 

_stripes,  imprisonment  and  death  itself,  in  vindi--^ 

cation  of  his  own  liberty,  and,  the  next  moment,  be  deafto 

all  those  motives  whose  power  supported  him  through  his 

trial,  and  inflict  on  his  fellow-man  a  bondage;  one 
17.  103.  hour_oi  which  is  fraught  with  more  misery7  than 

ages  of  that  which  he  rose  in,  re fifflion 'to  oppose. 
But  we  must  await,  with  patience,  the  workings  of  an  over- 
riiHnprjFVoYiripnrp,  ^riH  frnpp  that  that  is  preparing  thg-4e- 
liverance  of  these,  our  suffering  brethren.  When  the  meas- 
ure of  their  tears  shall  be'  full^when  their  groans  shall  have 
involved  Heaven  itself  in  darkness,  doubtless,  a  uod  of  ffis- 
tice  will  awaken  to  their  jfistress,  and  by  difiuslng  U^ht 
arid  liberality  among  their  oppressors,  or.  at  lensfth.  bv  his 
exterminating  thunder,  manifest  his  attention  to  thg  things 
of  this  world,  and  that  they  are  not"  left  to  the~"guid3r|rf>  nf 
a  blind  fatality.  ( Monsieur  De  Meusnier,  1786.) 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

CHAPTER  II 
LOYALTY  AND  SECESSION 

THE  REV.  MR.  COFFIN     .     .....     soliciting  dona- 
tions for  a  college     .     .     .     in  Tennessee,  tells  me 
.     .     .     he  wrote  a  paper  recommendatory  of  the 
enterprise,  which  he  meant  to  get  signed  by     ...     per- 
sons in  a  civil  character,  at  the  head  of  which  he  wished  Mr. 
Adams  to  put  his  name,  he  being  then  President, 
i.  441.  .     .     .     Mr.  Adams,  after  reading  the  paper  and 
considering,  said  "he  saw  no  possibility  of  con- 
tinuing the  Union  of  the  States ;  that  their  dissolution  must 
necessarily  take  place;  that  he  therefore  saw  no  propriety 
in.  recommending  to  New  England  men  to  promote  a  literary 
•institution  in  the  South ;  that  it  was  in  fact  giving  strength 
to  those  who  were  to  be  their  enemies;  and  therefore  he 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it."    (December  13,  1803.) 

I  SEE,  with  the  deepest  affliction,  the  rapid  strides  with 
which  the  federal  branch  of  our  government  is  advanc- 
ing towards  the  usurpation  of  all  the  rights  reserved  to 
the  States  and  the  consolidation  in  itself,  of  all  powers,  for- 
eign and  domestic ;  and  that,  too,  by  constructions  which,  if 
legitimate  leave  no  limits  to  their  power.     .     .     . 
1 6.  146.  Under  the  authority    to    build    post    roads,  they 
claim  that  of  cutting  down  mountains  for  the  con- 
struction of  roads,  of  digging  canals     .     .     .     and  what  is 
our  resource  for  the  preservation    of    the    Constitution? 
Reason  and  argument?    You  might  as  well  argue  with  the 
marble  columns  encircling  them     .     .     .    Are  we  then,  to 
stand  to  our  arms,  with  the  hot-headed  Georgian?     No. 
That  must  be  the  last  resource,  not  to  be  thought  of  until 
much  longer  and  greater  sufferings.    If  every  infraction  of 


a  compact  of  so  many  parties  is  to  be  resisted  at  once,  as 
a  dissolution  of  it,  none  can  ever  be  formed  which  would 
last  one  year.  \^e  must  have  patience  and  longer  endur- 
ance then  with  our  brethren  when  under  delusion;  give 
them  time  for  reflection  and  experience  of  consequences; 
keep  ourselves  in  a  situation  to  profit  by  the  chapter  of  acci- 
dents; and  separate  from  our  companions  only  when  the 
sole  alternatives  left  are  the  dissolution  of  our  Union 
with  them,  or  submission  to  a  government  without  limita- 
tion of  powers.  Between  these  two  evils,  when  we  must 
make  our  choice,  there  can  be  no  hesitation.  But  in  the 
meantime  the  States  should  be  watchful  to  note  every  ma- 
terial usurpation  of  their  rights;  to  denounce  them  as  they 
occur  in  the  most  peremptory  terms ;  to  protest  against 
them  as  wrongs  to  which  our  present  consideration  shall 
be  considered,  not  as  acknowledgment  or  precedent  of  right, 
but  as  a  temporary  yielding  to  a  lesser  evil,  until  their  ac- 
cumulation shall  overweigh  that  of  separation./  I  would  go 
still  further,  and  give  to  the  federal  member,  by  a  regular 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  a  right  to  make  roads  and 
canals  of  intercommunication  between  the  States,  providing 
sufficiently  against  corrupt  practices  in  Congress  (log  roll- 
ing, etc.),  by  declaring  that  the  federal  proportion  of  each 
State  of  the  moneys  so  employed  shall  be  in  works  within 
the  State,  or  elsewhere  with  its  consent.  .  .  .  This  is 
the  course  which  I  think  safest  and  best  as  yet.  .  . 
Consolidation  .  .  .  becomes  ...  the  next  book  of 
their  history  .  .  .  they  now  look  to  a  single  and  splendid 
government  of  an  aristocracy,  founded  on  banking  institu- 
tions, and  moneyed  corporations  under  the  guise  and  cloak 
of  their  favored  branches  of  manufactures,  commerce,  and 
navigation,  riding  and  ruling  over  the  plundered  plowman 
and  beggared  yeomanry.  (To  William  Giles,  1825.) 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

IT  HAS  often  been  said  that  the  decisions  of  Congress 
are  impotent  because  the  Confederation  provides  no 
compulsory  power.  But  when  two  or  more  nations 
enter  into  a  compact,  it  is  not  usual  for  them  to  say  what 
shall  be  done  to  the  party  who  infringes  it.  Decency  for- 
bids this,  and  it  is  as  unnecessary  as  indecent,  be- 
17.  121.  cause  the  right  of  compulsion  naturally  results  to 
the  party  injured  by  the  breach.  When  any  one 
State  in  the  American  Union  refuses  obedience  to  the  Con- 
federation by  which  they  have  bound  themselves,  the  rest 
have  a  natural  right  to  compel  them  to  obedience.  Con- 
gress would  probably  exercise  long  patience  before  they 
would  recur  to  force ;  but  if  the  case  ultimately  required  it, 
they  would  use  that  recurrence.  Should  this  case  ever  arise, 
they  will  probably  coerce  by  a  naval  force,  as  being  more 
easy,  less  dangerous  to  liberty,  and  less  likely  to  produce 
much  bloodshed.  /It  has  been  said  that  our  governments, 
both  federal  and  particular,  want  energy;  that  it  is  difficult 
to  restrain  both  individuals  and  States  from  committing 
wrongs.  This  is  true,  and  is  an  inconvenience.  On  the 
other  hand,  that  energy  which  absolute  governments  derive 
from  an  armed  force,  which  is  the  effect  of  the  bayonet 
constantly  held  at  the  breast  of  every  citizen,  and  which  re- 
sembles very  much  the  stillness  of  the  grave,  must  be  ad- 
mitted also  to  have  its  inconveniences.  We  weigh  the  two 
together,  and  like  best  to  submit  to  the  former.  (1786.) 


DANGERS     .     .     .     might    be    apprehended    more 
reasonably  from  this  perfect  and  distinct  organi- 
zation, civil  and  military,  of  the  States;  to  wit, 
that  certain  States  from  local  and  occasional  discontents 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

might  attempt  to  secede  from  the  Union.    This  is  certainly 
possible ;  and  would  be  befriended  by  this  regular 
13.  21.    organization.    But  it  is  not  probable  that  local  dis- 
contents can  spread  to  such  an  extent  as  to  be  able 
to  face  the  sound  parts  of  so  extensive  a  Union ;  and  if  they 
should  reach  a  majority,  they  would  then  become  the  regu- 
lar government,  acquire  the  ascendency  in  Congress,  and  be 
able  to  redress  their  own  grievances  by  laws  peaceably  and 
constitutionally  passed. 

FORTY  years  of  almost  constant  absence  from  the 
State  (Virginia)  have  made  me  a  stranger  in  it, 
have  left  me  a  solitary  tree,  from  around  which  the 
axe  of  time  has  felled  all  the  companions  of  its  youth  and 
growth.  .  .  .  The  last  hope  of  human  liberty  in  this 

world  rests  on  us.  We  ought  for  so  dear  a  State 
13.  27.  to  sacrifice  every  attachment  and  every  enmity. 

Leave  the  President  free  to  choose  his  own  coadju- 
tors, to  pursue  his  own  measures,  and  support  him  and 
them,  even  if  we  think  we  are  wiser  than  they,  honester 
than  they  are,  or  possessing  more  enlarged  information  of 
the  state  of  things.  If  we  move  in  mass,  be  it  ever  so 
circuitously,  we  shall  attain  our  object;  but  if  we  break  into 
squads,  every  one  pursuing  the  path  he  thinks  most  direct, 
we  become  an  easy  conquest  to  those  who  can  now  barely 
hold  us  in  check.  I  repeat  again  that  we  ought  not  to 
schismatize  on  either  men  or  measures.  Principles  alone 
can  justify  that.  If  we  find  our  government  in  all  its 
branches  rushing  headlong,  like  our  predecessors,  into  the 
arms  of  monarchy,  if  we  find  them  violating  our  dearest 
rights,  the  trial  by  jury,  the  freedom  of  the  press,  the  free- 
dom of  opinion,  civil,  or  religious,  or  opening  on  our  peace 
of  mind  or  personal  safety  the  sluices  of  terrorism,  if  we  see 
them  raising  standing  armies,  when  the  absence  of  all  other 


10 


MASTER   THOUGHTS  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

danger  points  to  these  as  the  sole  objects  on  which  they  are 
to  be  employed,  then  indeed  let  us  withdraw  and  call  the 
nation  to  its  tents.  .  .  .  But  while  our  functionaries 
are  wise  and  honest  and  vigilant,  let  us  move  compactly 
under  their  guidance,  and  we  have  nothing  to  fear.  Things 
may  here  and  there  go  a  little  wrong.  It  is  not  in  their 
power  to  prevent  it.  But  all  will  be  right  in  the  end,  though 
not  perhaps  by  the  shortest  means.  (Col.  Duane,  1811.) 


WHAT  does  this  English   faction  with  you   (in 
Massachusetts)  mean?    Their  newspapers  say, 
rebellion,  and  that  they  will  not  remain  united 
with  us  unless  we  will  permit  them  to  govern  the  majority. 
If  this  be  their  purpose,  their  anti-republican  spirit,  it  ought 
,  to  be  met  at  once.     But  a  government  like  ours 
13.  162.  should  be  slow  in  believing  this,  should  put  forth 
its  whole  might  when  necessary  to  suppress  it,  and 
promptly  return  to  the  paths  of  reconciliation.     (1812.) 


THE  CEMENT  of  this  Union  is  in  the  heart  blood  of 
every  American.    I  do  not  believe  there  is  on  earth 
a  government  established  on  so  immovable  a  basis. 
Let  them,  in  any  State,  even  in  Massachusetts  itself,  raise 
the  standard  of  separation,   and  its  citizens  will  rise  in 
mass,  and  do  justice  themselves  on  their  own  in- 
14.  252.  cendiaries. 


I 


CAN  scarcely  contemplate  a  more  incalculable  evil  than 
the  breaking  of  the  Union  into  two  or  more  parts. 
...  8.  346. 


IT 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  PURSE  of  the  people  is  the  real  seat  of  sensi- 
bility.    Let  it  be  drawn  upon  largely,  and  they 
will  then  listen  to  truths  which  could  not  excite 
them  through  any  other  organ. 
10.  59. 


ALTHOUGH  I  had  laid  down  as  a  law  to  myself, 
never  to  write,  talk,  or  even  think  of  politics,  to 
know  nothing  of  public  affairs,  and  therefore  had 
ceased  to  read  the  newspapers,  yet  the  Missouri  question 
aroused  and  filled  me  with  alarm.  The  old  schism  of  fed- 
eral and  republican  threatened  nothing,  because  it 
15.  247.  existed  in  every  State,  and  united  them  together 
by  the  fraternism  of  party.  But  the  coincidence  of 
a  marked  principle,  moral  and  political,  with  a  geographi- 
cal line,  once  conceived,  I  feared  would  never  more  be 
obliterated  from  the  mind;  that  it  would  be  recurring  on 
every  occasion  and  renewing  irritations,  until  it  would 
kindle  such  mutual  and  mortal  hatred,  as  to  render  sepa- 
ration preferable  to  discord.  I  have  been  among  the  most 
sanguine  in  believing  that  our  Union  would  be  of  long  dura- 
tion. I  now  doubt  it  much,  and  see  the  event  at  no  great 
distance,  and  the  direct  consequence  of  this  question; 
.  .  .  My  only  comfort  and  confidence  is,  that  I  shall  not 
live  to  see  this;  and  I  envy  not  the  present  generation  the 
glory  of  throwing  away  the  fruits  of  their  Fathers'  sacri- 
fices of  life  and  fortune,  and  of  rendering  desperate  the  ex- 
periment which  was  to  decide  ultimately  the  question 
whether  man  is  capable  of  self-government.  This  treason 
against  human  hope  will  signalize  their  epoch  in  future  his- 
tory, as  the  counterpart  of  the  medal  of  their  predecessors. 
"Letter  to  William  Short,  1820. 


12 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THIS  momentous  question  (Missouri  Compromise), 
like,  a  fire  bell  in  the  night,  awakened  and  filled  me 
with  terror.  ...  I  considered  it  at  once  as  the 
knell  of  the  Union.  It  is  hushed,  indeed,  for  the  moment. 
But  this  is  a  reprieve  only,  not  a  final  sentence.  A  geographi- 
•  cal  line,  coinciding  with  a  marked  principle,  moral 
15.  249.  and  political,  once  conceived  and  held  up  to  the 
angry  passions  of  men,  will  never  be  obliterated, 
and  every  new  irritation  will  mark  it  deeper  and  deeper. 
.  .  .  I  can  say,  with  conscious  truth,  that  there  is  not  a 
man  on  earth  who  would  sacrifice  more  than  I  would  to 
relieve  us  of  this  heavy  reproach,  in  any  practical  way.  The 
cession  of  that  kind  of  property  (slaves),  for  so  it  is  mis- 
named, is  a  bagatelle,  which  would  not  cost  me  a  second 
thought,  if  in  that  way  a  general  emancipation  and  ex- 
patriation could  be  effected;  and  gradually  and  with  due 
sacrifices  I  think  it  might  be.  But  as  it  is,  we  have  the  wolf 
by  the  ears,  and  we  can  neither  hold  him  nor  safely  let  him 
go.  Justice  is  in  one  scale,  and  self-preservation  in  the 
other.  ...  I  regret  that  I  am  now  to  die  in  the  belief 
that  the  useless  sacrifice  of  themselves  by  the  generation  of 
1776,  to  acquire  self-government  and  happiness  of  their 
country,  is  to  be  thrown  away  by  the  unwise  and  unworthy 
passions  of  their  sons,  and  that  my  only  consolation  is  to 
be  that  I  live  not  to  weep  over  it. 

If  they  would  but  dispassionately  weigh  the  blessings 
they  will  throw  away,  against  an  abstract  principle  more 
likely  to  be  effected  t>y  Union "  than  without,  they  would 
pause  before  they  would  perpetrate  this  act  of  suicide  on 
themselves,  and  of  treason  against  the  hopes  of  the  world. 
.  .  .  To  yourself  as  the  faithful  advocate  of  the  Union  I 
tender  the  offering  of  my  esteem  and  respect. 

*Letter  to  John  Holmes,  1820. 

13 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

NOR  IS  our  side  of  the  water  entirely  untroubled, 
the  boisterous  sea  of  liberty  is  never  without  a 
wave.  A  hideous  evil,  the  magnitude  of  which  is 
seen,  and  at  a  distance  only,  by  the  one  party,  and  more 
sorely  felt  and  sincerely  deplored  by  the  other,  from  the 
difficulty  of  the  cure,  divides  us  at  this  moment 
15.  283.  too  angrily.  The  attempt  by  one  party  to  pro- 
hibit willing  States  from  sharing  the  evil,  is  thought 
by  the  other  to  render  desperate  by  accumulation  the  hope 
of  its  final  eradication.  If  a  little  time,  however,  is  given 
to  both  parties  to  cool,  and  to  dispel  their  visionary  fears, 
they  will  see  that  concurring  in  sentiment  as  to  the  evil, 
moral  and  political,  the  duty  and  interest  of  both  is  to  con- 
cur also  in  divining  a  practical  process  of  cure.  Should 
time  not  be  given,  and  the  schism  be  pushed  to  separation, 
it  will  be  for  a  short  time  only;  two  or  three  years'  trial 
will  bring  them  back,  like  quarrelling  lovers,  to  renewed 
embraces  and  increased  affections.  The  experiment  of 
separation  would  soon  prove  to  both  that  they  had  mutually 
miscalculated  their  best  interests.  And  even  were  the  parties 
in  Congress  to  secede  in  a  passion,  the  soberer  people  would 
call  a  convention  and  cement  again  the  severance  attempted 
by  the  insanity  of  their  functionaries.  With  this  consoling 
view  my  greatest  grief  would  be  for  the  fatal  effect  of 
such  an  event  on  the  hopes  and  happiness  of  the  world.  We 
exist  and  are  quoted  as  standing  proofs  that  a  government 
so  modelled  as  to  rest  continually  upon  the  will  of  the  whole 
society  is  a  practicable  government.  Were  we  to  break  to 
pieces,  it  would  dampen  the  hopes  and  the  efforts  of  the 
good,  and  give  triumph  to  those  of  the  bad  through  the 
whole  enslaved  world.  As  members  therefore  of  the  uni- 
versal society  of  mankind,  and  standing  in  high  and  re- 
sponsible relation  with  them,  it  is  pur  sacred  duty  to  sup- 
press passion  among  ourselves,  and  not  to  blast  the  con- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

fidence  we  have  inspired  of  proof  that  a  government  of 
reason  is  better  than  one  of  force.    (William  Rush,  1820.) 


IT  IS  not  a  moral  question,  but  one  merely  of  power. 
Its  object  is  to  raise  a  geographical  principle  for  the 
choice  of  President,  and  the  noise  will  be  kept  upf'till 
that  is  effected. 

All   know   that   permitting  the   slaves   of   the    South  to 
spread  into  the  West    will  not  add  one  being  to  that  un- 
fortunate condition,  that  it  will  increase  the  happi- 
15.  301.  ness  of  those  existing,  and  by  spreading  them  over 
a  larger  surface  will  dilute  the  evil  everywhere, 
and  facilitate  the  means  of  finally  getting  rid  of  it,  an  event 
more  anxiously  wished  by  those  on  whom  it  presses  than 
by  the  noisy  pretenders   to   exclusive  humanity.      In   the 
meantime  it  is  a  ladder  for  rivals  climbing  to  power. 


ALL,   I   fear,  do  not  see  the  speck  in  our  horizon 
which  is  td"  burst  on  us  as  a  tornado  sooner  or 
later.     The  line  of  division  lately  marked  out  be- 
tween different  portions  of  our  confederacy   is  such  as  will 
never,  I  fear,  be  obliterated. 
I5-3I5- 


BY  ALL,  I  trust,  the  Union  of  these   States  will  ever 
be  considered  as  the   Palladium  of  their  safety, 
their  prosperity  and   glory,   and  all  attempts  to 
sever  it  will  be  frowned  on  with  reprobation  and  abhor- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

rence.    And  I  have  equal  confidence  that  all  moved  by  the 
sacred  principles  of  liberty  and  patriotism  will  pre- 
16.  341.  pare  themselves  for  any  crisis  we  may  be  able  to 
meet,  and  be  ready  to  cooperate  with  each  other, 
and  with  the  constituted  authorities,  in  resisting  and  repell- 
ing the  aggressions  of  foreign  nations. 

BE  THIS  as  it  may,  in  every  free  and  deliberating 
society,  there  must  from  the  nature  of  man  be 
opposite  parties  and  violent  dissensions  and  dis- 
cords ;  and  one  of  these,  for  the  most  part,  must  prevail  over 
the  other  for  a  longer  or  shorter  term.  Perhaps  this  party 

division  is  necessary  to  induce  each  to  watch  and 
18.  207.  relate  to  the  people  the  proceedings  of  the  other. 

But  if  on  a  temporary  superiority  of  the  one  party, 
the  other  is  to  resort  to  the  scission  of  the  Union  no  Federal 
Government  can  ever  exist.  If  to  rid  ourselves  of  the  pres- 
ent rule  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  we  break  the 
Union,  will  the  evil  stop  there?  Suppose  the  New  England 
States  cut  off,  will  our  natures  be  changed?  Are  we  not 
men  still  to  the  south  of  that,  and  with  all  the  passions  of 
men?  Immediately  we  shall  see  a  Pennsylvania  and  a  Vir- 
ginia party  arise  in  the  residuary  confederacy,  and  the  pub- 
lic mind  will  be  distracted  with  the  same  party  spirit.  What 
a  game,  too,  will  the  one  party  have  in  their  hands  by 
eternally  threatening  the  other  that,  unless  they  do  so  and 
so,  they  will  join  their  Northern  neighbors.  If  we  reduce 
our  Union  to  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  immediately  the 
conflict  will  be  established  between  the  representatives  of 
these  two  States,  and  they  will  end  by  breaking  into  their 
simple  units.  Seeing,  therefore,  that  an  association  of  men 
that  will  not  quarrel  with  one  another  is  a  thing  which  never 
yet  existed,  from  the  greatest  confederacy  of  nations  down 
to  a  town  meeting  or  a  vestry,  seeing  that  we  must  have 

16 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

somebody  to  quarrel  with,  I  had  rather  keep  our  New  Eng- 
land associates  for  that  purpose  than  to  see  our  bickerings 
transferred  to  others.  ...  A  little  patience  and  we 
shall  see  the  reign  of  witches  over,  their  spells  dissolve,  and 
the  people,  recovering  their  true  sight,  restore  their  govern- 
ment to  its  true  principles.  It  is  true  that  in  the  meantime 
we  are  suffering  deeply  in  spirit,  and  incurring  the  horrors 
of  a  war  and  long  oppressions  of  enormous  public  debt. 
But  who  could  say  what  would  be  the  evils  of  a  scission,  arid 
when  and  where  they  would  end  ?  Better  keep  together  as 
we  are,  haul  off  from  Europe  as  soon  as  we  can,  and  from 
all  attachments  to  any  portions  of  it.  And  if  we  feel  their 
power  just  sufficiently  to  hoop  us  together,  it  will  be  the 
happiest  situation  in  which  we  can  exist.  If  the  game  runs 
sometimes  against  us  at  home  we  must  have  patience  until 
luck  turns,  and  then  we  shall  have  an  opportunity  of  win- 
ning back  the  principles  we  have  lost,  for  this  is  a  game 
where  principles  are  the  stake.  (To  John  Taylor,  1798.) 

I    AM   perfectly   content     ...     to   meet   all   hazards 
and  trials  with  my  fellow  citizens.    If  we  keep  together 
we  shall  be  safe,  and  when  error  is  so  apparent  as  to 
become  visible  to  the  majority,  they  will  correct  it,  and 
what  we  suffer  during  the  error  must  be  carried  to  ac- 
count with  the  losses  by  tempests,  earthquakes,  etc. 
18.  291. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  AM  as  happy  nowhere  else,  and  in  no  other  society,  and 
all  my  wishes  end,  where  I  hope  my  days  will  end,  at 
Monticello.     Too  many   scenes   of  happiness   mingle 
themselves  with  all  the  recollections  of  my  native  woods 
and  fields,  to  suffer  them  to  be  supplanted  in  my  affection 

by  any  other. 
6.  263 

WERE  parties  here  divided  merely  by  a  greedi- 
ness for  office  as  in  England,  to  take  a  part 
with  either  would  be  unworthy  of  a  reason- 
able or  moral  man.    But  where  the  principle  of  difference 
is  as  pronounced  as  between  the  Republicans  and  the  mono- 
crats  of  our  country,  I  hold  it  as  honorable  to  take 
9.  317.     a  firm  and  decided  part,  and  as  immoral  to  pursue 
a  middle  line,  as  between  the  parties  of  honest  men 
and  rogues,  into  which,  every  country  is  divided.     (Letter 
to  William  Giles,  1795.) 

THANKS  be  to  God,   the  tiger     (Napoleon   Bona- 
parte) who  revelled  so  long  in  the  blood  and  spoils 
of  Europe  is  at  length,  like  another  Prometheus, 
chained  to  his  rock,  where  the  vulture  of  remorse  for  his 
crimes  will  be  preying  on  his  vitals  and  in  like  manner  with- 
out consuming  them.     Having  been  like  him  in- 
19.  256.  trusted  with  the  happiness  of  my  country,  I  feel 
the  blessing  of  resembling  him  in  no  other  point. 
I  have  not  caused  the  death  of  five  or  ten  millions  of  human 
beings,  the  devastation  of  other  countries,  the  depopulation 
of  my  own,  the  exhaustion  of  all  its  resources,  the  destruc- 

18 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

tion  of  its  liberties,  nor  its  foreign  subjugation.  All  this 
he  has  done  to  render  more  illustrious  the  atrocities  perpe- 
trated for  illustrating  himself  and  his  family  with  plundered 
diadems  and  sceptres.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  the  conso- 
lation to  reflect  that  during  the  period  of  my  administra- 
tion not  a  drop  of  the  blood  of  a  single  fellow  citizen  was 
shed  by  the  sword  of  war  or  of  the  law,  and  that  after 
cherishing  for  eight  years  their  peace  and  prosperity  I  laid 
down  their  trust  of  my  own  accord,  and  in  the  midst  of 
their  blessings  and  importunities  to  continue  in  it.  But  be- 
ginning to  be  sensible  of  the  effect  of  age,  I  feared  its  in- 
firmities might  injure  their  interests,  and  believed  the  ex- 
ample would  be  salutary  against  inveteration  in  office,  and 
I  now  enjoy  in  retirement  the  comfort  of  their  good  will, 
and  of  a  conscience  calm  and  without  reproach.  (To 
Count  Duquain,  1818.) 


MY"  greatest  of  all  amusements   (is)    reading.     Dr. 
Franklin  used  to  say  that  when  he  was  young 
and  had  time  to  read  he  had  not  books ;  and  now, 
when  he  has  become  old  and  has  books,  he  has  no  time. 
Perhaps  it  is  that  when  habit  has  strengthened  our  sense  of 
duties,  they  leave  us  no  time  for  other  things; 
19.  194.  but  when  young  we  neglect  them  and  this  gives 
us  time   for  anything. 


YOU  know  our  course  of  life.    To  place  our  friends 
at  ease  we  show  them  that  we  are  so  ourselves, 
by  pursuing  the  necessary  vocations  of  the  day  and 
enjoying  their  company  at  the  usual  hours  of  society. 
19.  209. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  HAVE  come  to  a  resolution  myself,  as  I  hope  every 
good  citizen  will,  never  again  to  purchase  any  arti- 
cle of  foreign  manufacture  which  can  be  had  of  Ameri- 
can make,  be  the  difference  of  price  what  it  may. 
19.  223. 


S 


ENSIBILITY  of  mind  is  indeed  the  parent  of  every 
virtue,  but  it  is  the  parent  of  much  misery,  too. 
19.  46. 


To  Hon.  Jas.  Monroe.     1800.    General. 

I  NEVER  doubted  the  propriety  of  our  adopting  as  a 
system  that  of  pomp  and  fulsome  attentions  by  our 
citizens  to  their  functionaries.     I  am  decided,  against 
it,  as  it  makes  the  citizen  in  his  own  eye  exalting  his  func- 
tionary and  creating  a  distance  between  the  two,  which  does 
not  tend  to  aid  the  morals  of  either.    I  think  it  is 
19.  119.  a  practice  which  we  ought  to  destroy  and  must 
destroy,  and  therefore  must  not  adopt  as  a  general 
thing  even  for  a  short  time. 


I 


T  is  more  honorable  to  repair  a  wrong  than  to  persist 
in  it. 
19.  149. 


OUR  body  was  little  numerous,  but  very  contentious. 
Day  after  day  was  wasted  on  the  most  unimportant 
questions.     A  member,  one  of  those  afflicted  with 
the  morbid  rage  of  debate,  of  an  ardent  mind,  prompt  im- 
agination, and  copious  flow  of  words,  who  heard  with  im- 
patience any  logic  which  was  not  his  own,  sitting 
i.  86.      near  me  on  some  occasion  of  a  trifling  but  wordy 
debate,  asked  me  how  I  could  sit  in  silence,  hear- 


20 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ing  so  much  false  reasoning,  which  a  word  should  refute? 
I  observed  to  him  that  to  refute  indeed  was  easy,  but  to 
silence  was  impossible;  that  in  measures  brought  forward 
by  myself,  I  took  the  laboring  oar,  as  was  incumbent  upon 
me ;  but  that  in  general,  I  was  willing  to  listen ;  that  if  every 
sound  argument  or  objection  (was  suggested)  by  some  one 
or  other  of  the  numerous  debaters,  it  was  enough ;  if  not,  I 
thought  it  sufficient  to  suggest  the  omission,  without  going 
into  a  repetition  of  what  had  been  already  said  by  others: 
that  this  was  a  waste  and  abuse  of  the  time  and  patience  of 
the  house,  which  could  not  be  justified.  And  I  believe  that 
if  the  members  of  deliberative  bodies  were  to  observe  this 
course  generally,  they  would  do  in  a  day  what  takes  them 
a  week;  and  it  is  really  more  questionable  than  may  at  first 
be  thought,  whether  Bonaparte's  dumb  legislature,  which 
said  nothing,  and  did  much,  may  not  be  preferable  to  one 
which  talks  much,  and  does  nothing. 

I  served  with  General  Washington  in  the  legislature 
of  Virginia  before  the  Revolution,  and  during  it  with  Dr. 
Franklin  in  Congress.  I  never  heard  either  of  them  speak 
more  than  ten  minutes  at  a  time,  nor  to  any  but  the  main 
point,  which  was  to  decide  the  question.  They  laid  their 
shoulders  to  the  great  points,  knowing  that  the  little  ones 
would  follow  of  themselves.  If  the  present  Congress  errs 
in  too  much  talking,  how  can  it  be  otherwise,  in  a  body  to 
which  the  people  send  one  hundred  and  fifty  lawyers,  whose 
trade  is  to  question  everything,  yield  nothing,  and  talk  by 
the  hour?  That  one  hundred  and  fifty  lawyers  should  do 
business  together  is  not  to  be  expected. 

THE  Count  de  Vergennes  had  the  reputation,  with 
the  diplomatic  corps,  of  being  slippery  and  wary 
in  his  diplomatic  intercourse;  and  so  he  might  be 
with  those  whom  he  knew  to  be  slippery  and  double-faced 

21 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

themselves.  As  he  saw  that  I  had  no  indirect  views,  prac- 
ticed no  subtleties,  meddled  in  no  intrigues,  pur- 

i.  96.  sued  no  concealed  object,  I  found  him  as  frank, 
honorable,  as  easy  of  access  to  reason,  as  any  man 

with  whom  I  have  ever  done  business.     .     .     . 

MY  wish  was  to  see  both  houses  of  Congress  cleansed 
of  all   persons   interested   in  the  bank  or  pub- 
-      lie  stocks ;  and  that  a  pure  legislature  being  given 
us,  I  should  always  be  ready  to  acquiesce  under  their  de- 
terminations, even  if  contrary  to  my  own  opinions;  for  I 
subscribe  to  the  principle,  that  the  will  of  the  ma- 
I.  332.     jority,  honestly  expressed,  should  give  law. 

IN  EVERY  event,  I  would  rather  construe  (the  Consti- 
tution) so  narrowly  as  to  oblige  the  Nation  to  amend, 
and  thus  declare  what  powers  they  would  agree  to 
yield,  than  too  broadly,  and,  indeed,  so  broadly  as  to  enable 
the  Executive  and  Senate  to  do  things  the  Con- 
i.  408.     stitution  forbids. 

I  WAS  against  writing  letters  to  the  Judiciary  officers. 
I   thought  them   independent  of  the  Executive,   not 
subject  to  its  coercion,  and  therefore  not  obliged  to 
attend  to  its  admonitions. 

I-  399- 

I  HAD  never  interfered  directly  or  indirectly  with  my 
friends  or  any  others  to  influence  the  election   for 
.     .     .      myself;  that  I  considered  it  as  my  duty  to  be 
merely  passive.     ...     In  the  election  now  coming  on  I 
was    observing    the     same     conduct,     held     no     councils 
with  anybody  respecting  it,  nor  suffered  any  one 
i.  445.     to  speak  to  me  on  the  subject,  believing  it  my  duty 
to  leave  myself  to  the  free  discussion  of  the  pub- 
lic.    .     .     . 

22 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  NEVER  had  done  a  single  act,  or  been  concerned  in 
any  transaction,  which  I  feared  to  have  fully  laid 
open,  or  which  could  do  me  any  hurt,  if  truly  stated; 
.  .  .  I  had  never  done  a  single  thing  with  a  view  to  my 
personal  interest,  or  that  of  any  friend,  or  with  any  other 

view  than  that  of  the  greatest  public  good;  that 
i.  450.  therefore,  no  threat  or  fear  on  that  head  could 

ever  be  a  motive  of  action  with  me.  Coming  out 
of  the  Senate  chamber  one  day,  I  found  Gouverneur  Mor- 
ris on  the  steps.  He  stopped  me  .  .  .  and  went  on 
to  observe  that  the  reasons  why  the  minority  of  States 
was  so  opposed  to  my  being  elected,  were,  that  they  ap- 
prehended that  (i)  I  would  turn  all  Federalists  out  of  of- 
fice; (2)  put  down  the  navy;  (3)  wipe  off  the  public  debt. 
That  I  need  only  declare,  or  to  authorize  my  friends  to 
declare,  that  I  would  not  take  these  steps,  and  instantly 
the  event  of  the  election  would  be  fixed.  I  told  him  that 
I  should  leave  the  World  to  judge  of  the  course  I  meant 
to  pursue  by  that  which  I  had  pursued  hitherto,  believing 
it  my  duty  to  be  passive  and  silent  during  the  present 
scene ;  that  I  should  certainly  make  no  terms ;  should  never 
go  into  the  office  of  President  by  capitulation,  nor  with  my 
hands  tied  by  any  conditions  which  should  hinder  me  from 
pursuing  the  measures  which  I  should  deem  for  the  public 
good.  (The  vote  stood  73  to  73,  and  one  vote  would  have 
decided  the  election. )  .  .  .  Certain  I  am  that  neither  he 
nor  any  other  Republican  ever  uttered  the  most  distant 
hint  to  me  about  submitting  to  any  conditions,  or  giving 
any  assurances  to  anybody,  and  still  more  certainly,  was 
neither  he  nor  any  other  person  ever  authorized  by  me  to 
say  what  I  would  or  would  not  do.  .  .  . 


MASTER   THOUGHTS  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

IGNORANCE  is  preferable  to  error;  and  he  is  less  re- 
mote from  truth  who  believes  nothing,  than  he  who 
believes  what  is  wrong. 
2.  43- 

IN  SHORT  we  are  likely  to  preserve  the  liberty  we  have 
obtained  only  by  unremitting  labors  and  perils.     But 
we  shall  preserve  it;  and  our  mass  of  weight  and 
wealth  on  the  good  side  is  so  great  as  to  leave  no  danger 
that  force  will  ever  be  attempted  against  us. 
9-  335- 

WE  have  an  immensity  of  land  courting  the  in- 
dustry of  the  husbandman.  Is  it  best  then 
for  all  our  citizens  to  be  employed  in  its  im- 
provement, or  that  one-half  should  be  called  off  from  that 
to  exercise  manufactures  and  handicraft  arts  for  the  other? 

Those  who  labor  in  the  earth  are  the  chosen  peo- 
2.  229.  pie  of  God,  if  he  ever  had  a  chosen  people,  whose 

breasts  He  has  made  His  peculiar  deposit  for  sub- 
stantial and  genuine  virtue.  .  .  .  Corruption  of  morals 
in  the  mass  of  cultivators  is  a  phenomenon  of  which  no 
age  nor  nation  has  furnished  an  example.  It  is  the  mark 
set  on  those  who,  not  looking  up  to  heaven,  to  their  own 
soil  and  industry,  as  does  the  husbandman,  for  their  sub- 
sistence, depend  for  it  on  casualties  and  caprice  of  cus- 
tomers. Dependence  begets  subservience  and  venality,  suf- 
focates the  germ  of  virtue,  and  prepares  fit  tools  for  the 
designs  of  ambition. 

This,  the  natural  progress  and  consequence  of  the 
arts,  has  sometimes  perhaps  been  retarded  by  accidental 
circumstances;  but,  generally  speaking,  the  proportion 


24 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

which  the  aggregate  of  the  other  classes  of  citizens  bears 
in  any  State  to  that  of  its  husbandmen,  is  the  proportion  of 
its  unsound  to  its  healthy  parts,  and  is  a  good  enough 
barometer  whereby  to  measure  its  degree  of  corruption. 
While  we  have  land  to  labor  then,  let  us  never  wish  to  see 
our  citizens  occupied  at  a  work  bench,  or  twirling  a  distaff. 
Carpenters,  masons,  smiths,  are  wanting  in  husbandry;  but 
for  the  general  operations  of  manufacture,  let  our  work- 
shops remain  in  Europe.  It  is  better  to  carry  provisions 
and  materials  to  workmen  there  than  bring  them  to  the  pro- 
visions and  materials,  and  with  them  their  manners  and 
principles.  The  loss  by  the  transportation  of  commodities 
across  the  Atlantic  will  be  made  up  (in)  happiness  and  per- 
manence of  government.  The  mobs  of  great  cities  add 
just  so  much  to  the  support  of  pure  government  as  sores  do 
to  the  strength  of  the  human  body.  It  is  the  manners  and 
spirit  of  a  people  which  preserve  a  republic  in  vigor.  A 
degeneracy  in  these  is  a  canker  which  soon  eats  to  the  lieart 
of  its  laws  and  constitution. 

I  REPEAT  it  again,  cultivators  of  the  earth  are  the  most 
virtuous  and  independent  citizens     .     .     .     the  actual 
habits  of  our  countrymen  attach  them  to  commerce. 
They   will   exercise  it   for  themselves.     Wars   then  must 
sometimes  be  our  lot;  and  all  the  wise  can  do  will  be  to 
avoid  that  half  of  them  which  would  be  produced 
2.  241.     by  our  own  follies,  and  our  own  acts  of  injustice; 
and  to  make  for  the  other  half  the  best  prepara- 
tions we  can.    Of  what  nature  should  these  be?    A  land 
army  would  be  useless  for  offence,  and  not  the  best  nor 
safest  instrument  of  defence.    For  either  of  these  purposes 
the  sea  is  the  field  on  which  we  should  meet  an  European 
enemy.     On  that  element  it  is  necessary  that  we  should 
possess  some  power.    To  aim  at  such  a  navy  as  the  greater 

25 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

European  nations  possess  would  be  a  foolish  and  wicked 
waste  of  the  energies  of  our  countrymen.  It  would  be  to 
pull  on  our  own  heads  that  load  of  military  expense  which 
makes  the  European  laborer  go  supperless  to  bed,  and 
moistens  his  bread  with  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  It  will  be 
enough  if  we  enable  ourselves  to  prevent  insults  from  those 
nations  of  Europe  which  are  weak  on  the  sea,  because 
circumstances  exist  which  render  even  the  strong  ones  weak 
as  to  us.  Providence  has  placed  their  richest  and  most 
defenceless  possessions  at  our  door;  has  obliged  their  most 
precious  commerce  to  pass,  as  it  were,  in  review  before  us. 
To  protect  this,  or  to  assail,  a  small  part  only  of  their  naval 
force  will  ever  be  risked  across  the  Atlantic.  The  dangers 
to  which  the  elements  expose  them  here  are  too  well  known, 
and  the  greater  dangers  to  which  they  would  be  exposed 
at  home,  were  any  calamity  to  involve  their  whole  fleet. 
They  can  attack  us  by  detachment  only;  and  it  will  suffice 
to  make  ourselves  equal  to  what  they  may  detach.  .  .  . 
A  small  naval  force  then  is  sufficient  for  us,  and  a  small 
one  is  necessary.  What  this  should  be  I  will  not  under- 
take to  say.  I  will  only  say,  it  should  be  by  no  means  so 
great  as  we  are  able  to  make  it. 

OUR  INTEREST  will  be  to  throw  open  the  doors  of 
commerce,  and  to  knock  off  all  its  shackles,  giv- 
ing perfect  freedom  to  all  persons  for  the  vent  of 
whatever  they  may  choose  to  bring  into  our  ports,  and  ask- 
ing the  same  in  theirs.    Never  was  so  much  false  arithme- 
tic employed  on  any  subject  as  that  which  has  been 
2.  240    employed  to  persuade  nations  that  it  is  their  in- 
terest to  go  to  war.     Were  the  money  which  it 
has  cost  to  gain,  at  the  close  of  a  long  war,  a  little  town,  or 
a  little  territory,  the  right  to  cut  wood  here,  or  to  catch  fish 
there,  expended  in  improving  what  they  already  possess,  in 

26 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

making  roads,  opening  rivers,  building  ports,  improving  the 
arts,  and  finding  employment  for  their  idle  poor,  it  would 
render  them  much  stronger,  much  wealthier,  and  happier. 
And  this  I  hope  will  be  our  wisdom. 

DURING  the  contest  of  opinion  through  which  we 
have  passed,  the  animation  of  discussion  and  of 
exertions  has  sometimes  worn  an  aspect  which 
might  impose  on  strangers  unused  to  think  freely  and  to 
think  and  to  write  what  they  think;  but  this  being  now 

decided  by  the  voice  of  the  nation,  announced  ac- 
3.  318.  cording  to  the  rules  of  the  Constitution,  all  will, 

of  course,  arrange  themselves  under  the  will  of  the 
law,  and  unite  in  common  efforts  for  the  common  good. 
All,  too,  will  bear  in  mind  this  sacred  principle,  that  though 
the  will  of  the  majority  is  in  all  cases  to  prevail,  that  will, 
to  be  rightful,  must  be  reasonable;  that  the  minority  pos- 
sess their  equal  rights,  which  equal  laws  must  protect,  and 
to  violate  which  would  be  oppression.  ^  Let  us,  then,  fel- 
low-citizens, unite  with  one  heart  and  one  mind.  Let  us 
restore  to  social  intercourse  that  harmony  and  affection 
without  which  liberty  and  even  life  itself  are  but  dreary 
things.  And  let  us  reflect  that  having  banished  from  our 
land  that  religious  intolerance  under  which  mankind  so 
long  bled  and  suffered,  we  have  yet  gained  little  if  we 
countenance  a  political  intolerance  as  despotic,  as  wicked, 
and  capable  of  as  bitter  and  bloody  persecutions.  During 
the  throes  and  convulsions  of  the  ancient  world,  during  the 
agonizing  spasms  of  infuriated  men,  seeking  through  blood 
and  slaughter  their  long  lost  liberty,  it  was  not  wonderful 
that  the  agitation  of  the  billows  should  reach  even  this 
distant  and  peaceful  shore;  that  this  should  be  more  felt 
and  feared  by  some  and  less  by  others;  that  this  should 
divide  opinions  as  to  measures  of  safety.  But  every  differ- 


27 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ence  of  opinion  is  not  a  difference  of  principle.  We  have 
called  by  different  names  brethren  of  the  same  principle. 
We  are  all  republicans — we  are  all  federalists.  If  there 
be  any  among  us  who  would  wish  to  dissolve  this  Union 
or  to  change  its  republican  form,  let  them  stand  undis- 
turbed as  monuments  of  the  safety  with  which  error  of 
opinion  may  be  tolerated  where  reason  is  left  free  to  com- 
bat it.  I  know  indeed  that  some  honest  men  fear  that  a 
republican  government  cannot  be  strong  enough.  But  would 
the  honest  patriot,  in  the  full  tide  of  successful  experiment, 
abandon  a  government  which  has  so  far  kept  us  free  and 
firm,  on  the  theoretic  and  visionary  fear  that  this  govern- 
ment, the  world's  best  hope,  may  by  possibility  want  energy 
to  preserve  itself?  I  trust  not.  I  believe  this,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  strongest  government  on  earth.  I  believe  it  is 
the  only  one  where  every  man,  at  the  call  of  the  laws,  would 
fly  to  the  standard  of  the  law,  and  would  meet  invasions 
of  the  public  order  as  his  own  personal  concern.  Some- 
times it  is  said  that  man  cannot  be  trusted  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  himself.  Can  he,  then,  be  trusted  with  the 
government  of  others?  Or  have  we  found  angels  in  the 
forms  of  kings  to  govern  him?  Let  history  answer  this 
question. 

I  FEAR  not  that  any  motives  of  interest  may  lead  me 
astray;    I   am    sensible   of   no   passion   which   could 
seduce  me  knowingly  from  the  path  of  justice;  but 
the  weakness  of  human  nature,  and  the  limits  of  my  own 
understanding  w;ll  produce  errors  of  judgment  sometimes 
injurious  to  your  interests.     I  shall  need,  there- 
3.  383.     fore,   all   the   indulgence   I   have  heretofore   ex- 
perienced— the  want  of  it  will  certainly  not  lessen 
with  the  increasing  years.     I  shall  need,  too,  the  favor  of 
that  being,  in  whose  hands  we  are,  who  led  our  Fathers, 

28 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

as  Israel  of  old,  from  their  native  land,  and  planted  them 
in  a  country  flowing  with  all  the  necessaries  and  comforts 
of  life;  who  has  covered  our  infancy  with  His  providence, 
and  our  riper  years  with  His  wisdom  and  power;  and  to 
whose  goodness  I  ask  you  to  join  me  in  supplications,  that 
He  will  so  enlighten  the  minds  of  your  servants,  guide  their 
councils,  and  prosper  their  measures,  that  whatsoever  they 
do  shall  result  in  your  good,  and  shall  secure  to  you  the 
peace,  friendship,  and  approbation  of  all  nations. 

I   PERCEIVE  by  your  letter  you  are  not  unapprised 
that  your  services  to  your  country  have  not  made 
due    impression   on   every   mind.      That    you    have 
enemies,  you  must  not  doubt,  when  you  reflect  that  you 
have  made  yourself  eminent.    If  you  meant  to  escape  malice 
you  should   have  confined    yourself    within    the 
4.  20 1.     sleepy  line  of  regular  duty.     When  you  trans- 
gressed this,  and  enterprised  deeds  which  will  hand 
down  your  name  with  honor  to  future  times,  you  made 
yourself  a  mark  for  envy  and  malice  to  shoot  at.    Of  these 
there  is  enough,  both  in  and  out  of  office.     I  was  not  a 
little  surprised  to  find  one  person  hostile  to  you     .     .     . 
that  you  may  long  continue  a  fit  object  for  his  enmity,  and 
for  that  of  every  person  of  his  complexion  in  the  state, 
which  I  know  can  only  be  by  your  continuing  to  do  good 
to  your  country,  and  to  acquire  honor  to  yourself,  is  the 
earnest  prayer  of     ...     Your  friend.     .     .     . 

.  .  .  .  In  a  virtuous  government,  and  more  es- 
pecially in  times  like  these,  public  offices  are  what  they 
should  be,  burthens  to  those  appointed  to  them,  which  it 
would  be  wrong  to  decline,  though  foreseen  to  bring  with 
them  intense  labor  and  great  private  loss.  4.  297. 


29 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

If  pride  of  character  be  of  worth  at  any  time,  it  is  when 
it  disarms  the  efforts  of  malice.     4.  364. 

The  glow  of  one  warm  thought  is  to  me  worth  more  than 
money.    4.  23. 

I  HAVE  printed  and  reserved  just  copies  enough  (Notes 
on  Virginia)  to  be  able  to  give  one  to  every  young 
man  at  the  college.     It  is  to  them  I  look,  to  the  ris- 
ing generation,  and  not  to  the  one  now  in  power,  for  these 
great  reformations. 
5-  4- 

THE  KNOWN  bias  of  the  human  mind  from  mo- 
tives of  interest  should  lessen  the  confidence  of 
each  party  in  the  justice  of  their  reasoning;    .    .    . 
5-  322. 

EVERY  rational  citizen  must  wish  to  see  an  effective 
instrument  of  coercion,  and  should  fear  to  see  it 
on  any  other  element  than  the  water.     A  naval 
force  can  never  endanger  our  liberties,  nor  occasion  blood- 
shed, a  land  force  would  do  both. 
5-  386. 

WERE  I  to  select  any  passages  as  giving  me  par- 
ticular satisfaction,  it  would  be  those  wherein 
you  prove  to  the  United  States  that  they  will 
be  more  virtuous,  more  free,  and  more  happy,  employed  in 
agriculture,   than  as  carriers   or  manufacturers.     It   is  a 
truth  and  a  precious  one  for  them,  if  they  could 
5.  402.     be  persuaded  of  it. 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  PHILADELPHIA  Bank  was  incorporated  by 
Congress.     This  is  perhaps  the  only  instance  of 
their  having  done  that  which  they  had  no  power 
to  do.     Necessity  obliged  them  to  give  this  institution  the 
appearance  of  their  countenance,  because  in  that  moment 
they  were  without  any  other  resource  for  money. 
5.  420. 

PERFECTION  in  wisdom,  as  well  as  in  integrity,  is 
neither  required  nor  expected  in  these  agents  (pub- 
lic servants).  It  belongs  not  to  man. 

18.  129.     The  wise  know  too  well  their  weakness  to  assume 
infallibility;    and  he  who  knows  most,  knows  best 
how  little  he  knows. 

This  is  not  the  spirit  of  our  law.  It  expects  not  im- 
possibilities. .'  *  .  It  has  consecrated  the  principle  that 
its  servants  are  not  responsible  for  honest  errors  of  judg- 
ment. .  .  .  He  who  has  done  his  duty  honestly,  and  ac- 
cording to  his  best  skill  and  judgment,  stands  acquitted  be- 
fore God  and  man. 

YOU  SAY  that  I  have  been  dished  up  to  you  as  an 
anti-federalist,  and  ask  me  if  it  be  just     ...    .    . 
since  you  ask  it  I  will  tell  you.     ...     I  am  not 
a  federalist,  because  I  never  submitted  the  whole  system  of 
my  opinions  to  the  creed  of  any  party  of  men  whatever,  in 
religion,  in  philosophy,  in  politics,  or  in  anything 
7.  299.     else,  where  I  was  capable  of  thinking  for  myself. 
Such  an  addiction  is  the  last  degradation  of  a  free 
moral  agent.    If  I  could  not  go  to  heaven  with  but  a  party, 
I  would  not  go  there  at  all.     Therefore,  I  am  not  of  the 
party  of  federalists.     But  I  am  much  farther  from  that  of 
the   anti-federalists.      I   approved   from   the   first   moment 


MASTER  THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

of  the  great  mass  of  what  is  in  the  new  Constitution;  the 
consolidation  of  the  government ;  the  organization  into  Ex- 
ecutive, legislative,  and  judiciary  .  .  .  what  I  disap- 
proved from  the  first  moment  also  was  the  want  of  a  bill 
of  rights  to  guard  liberty  against  the  legislative  as  well  as 
the  executive  branches  of  the  government,  that  is  to  say, 
to  secure  freedom  in  religion,  freedom  of  the  press,  free- 
dom from  monopolies,  freedom  from  unlawful  imprison- 
ment, freedom  from  a  permanent  military,  a  trial  by  jury,  in 
all  cases  determinable  by  the  laws  of  the  land.  .  .  . 
These,  my  dear  friend,  are  my  sentiments,  by  which  you 
will  see  I  was  right  in  saying  that  I  am  neither  federalist 
nor  anti-federalist;  that  I  am  of  neither  party,  nor  yet  a 
trimmer  between  parties.  These,  my  opinions,  I  wrote 
within  a  few  hours  after  I  had  read  the  Constitution,  to  one 
or  two  friends  in  America.  I  had  not  then  read  one  single 
word  printed  on  the  subject. 

I  never  had  an  opinion  in  politics  or  religion  which  I 
was  afraid  to  own.  A  costive  reserve  on  these  subjects 
might  have  procured  me  more  esteem  from  some  people,  but 
less  from  myself.  My  great  wish  is  to  go  on  in  a  strict 
but  silent  performance  of  my  duty;  to  avoid  attracting 
notice,  and  to  keep  my  name  out  of  newspapers,  because 
I  find  the  pain  of  a  little  censure,  even  when  it  is  unfounded, 
is  more  acute  than  the  pleasure  of  much  praise.  The  at- 
taching circumstance  of  my  present  office  is  that  I  can  do 
its  duties  unseen  by  those  for  whom  they  are  done. 

THE  OPERATIONS  which  have    taken    place    in 
America  lately  fill  me  with  pleasure.     In  the  first 
place,  they  realize  the  confidence  I  had,  that  when- 
ever our  affairs  go  obviously  wrong,  the  good  sense  of  the 

32 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

people  will  interpose  and  set  them  to  rights.  The  example 
of  changing  a  constitution,  by  assembling  the  wise 

7.  322.  men  of  the  state,  instead  of  assembling  armies, 
will  be  worth  as  much  to  the  world  as  the  former 

examples  we  had  given  them.    The  Constitution,  too,  which 

was  the  result  of  our  deliberations,  is  unquestionably  the 

wisest  ever  yet  presented  to  men.     .     .     . 

I  HAVE  not  hesitated  to  press  on  him   (Lafayette)   to 
burn  his  instructions,  and  follow  his  conscience  as 
the  only  sure  clue,  which  will  eternally  guide  a  man 
clear  of  all  doubts  and  inconsistencies.     .     .     . 
7-  350. 

WE  THINK,  in  America,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
introduce  the  people  into  every  department  of 
government,   as    far   as   they   are   capable   of 
exercising  it ;  and  that  this  is  the  only  way  to  insure  a  long 
continued  and  honest  administration  of  its  powers.     .     .     . 
In  the  form  of  juries,  therefore,  they  determine 
7.  422.     all  matters  of  fact,  leaving  to  the  judges  to  decide 
the  question  of  law   resulting  from  those  facts. 
But  we  all  know  that  permanent  judges  acquire  an  esprit 
de  corps;  that  being  known,  they  are  liable  to  be  tempted 
by  bribery;  that  they  are  misled  by  favor,  by  relationship, 
by  a  spirit  of  party,  by  a  devotion  to  the  executive  or  legis- 
lative power;  that  it  is  better  to  leave  a  cause  to  cross  and 
pile  than  to  a  judge. biased  to  one  side;  and  that  the  opinion 
of  twelve  honest  jurymen  gives  still  a  better  hope  of  right 
than  cross  and  pile  do.     It  is  in  the  power,  therefore,  of 
the  juries,  if  they  think  permanent  judges  are  under  any 
bias  whatever,  in  any  cause,  to  take  on  themselves  to  judge 
the  law   as   well   as  the   fact.     They   never   exercise   this 
power,  but  when  they  suspect  partiality  in  the  judges;  and 


33 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

by  the  exercise  of  this  power  they  have  been  the  firmest 
bulwarks  of  English  liberty.  Were  I  called  upon  to  decide 
whether  the  people  had  best  be  omitted  in  the  legislative  or 
judiciary  department,  I  would  say  it  is  better  to  leave  them 
out  of  the  legislative.  The  execution  of  the  laws  is  more 
important  than  the  making  of  them.  However  it  is  best 
to  have  the  people  in  all  three  departments,  where  that  is 
possible. 


I 


T  IS  not  for  an  individual  to  choose  his  post. 
8.  i. 


YOU  ARE  too  well  informed  a  politician,  too  good 
a  judge  of  men,  not  to  know  that  the  ground  of 
liberty  is  to  be  gained  by  inches,  that  we  must  be 
contented  to  secure  what  we  can  get  from  time  to  time,  and 
eternally  press  forward  for  what  is  yet  to  get.     It  takes 
time  to  persuade  men  to  do  even  what  is  for  their 
8.  3.        own  good. 

CONVINCED  that  the  republican  is  the  only  form 
for  government 'which  is  not  eternally  at  open  or 
secret  war  with  the  rights  of  mankind,  my  prayers 
and  efforts  shall  be  cordially  to  the  support  of  that  we 
have  so  happily  established.     It  is   indeed  an  animating 
thought,  that  while  we  are  securing  the  rights  of 
8.  7.         ourselves  and  our  posterity,  we  are  pointing  out 
the  way  to  struggling  nations  who  wish,  like  us, 
to  emerge  from  their  tyrannies  also.     Heaven  help  their 
struggles,  and  lead  them,  as  it  has  done  us,  triumphantly 
through  them. 


W 


E  ARE  not  to  expect  to  be    translated    from 
despotism  to  liberty  in  a  feather  bed 
8.  13- 

34 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

WHEN  I  first  entered  on  the  stage  of  public  life 
(now  24  years  ago),  I  came  to  the  resolution 
never  to  engage  while  in  public  life  in  any 
kind  of  enterprise  for  the  improvement  of  my  fortune,  nor 
to  wear  any  other  character  than  that  of  a  farmer.  I  have 

never  departed  from  it  in  a  single  instance;  and 
9.  44.  I  have,  in  multiplied  instances',  found  myself  happy 

in  being  able  to  decide  and  to  act  as  a  public  ser- 
vant, clear  of  all  interest,  in  the  multiform  questions  that 
have  arisen,  wherein  I  have  seen  others  embarrassed  and 
biased  by  having  got  themselves  into  a  more  interested 
situation.  Thus  I  have  thought  myself  richer  in  content- 
ment than  I  should  have  been  with  any  increase  of  for- 
tune. Certainly,  I  should  have  been  much  wealthier  had 
I  remained  in  that  private  station  which  renders  it  lawful 
and  even  laudable  to  use  proper  efforts  to  better  it.  How- 
ever, my  public  career  is  now  closing,  and  I  will  go  through 
on  the  principle  on  which  I  have  hitherto  acted. 

.  .  .  We,  I  hope,  shall  adhere  to  our  republican  gov- 
ernment, and  keep  to  its  original  principles  by  narrowly 
watching  it. 

TO  MY  fellow-citizens  the  debt  of  service  has  been 
fully   and    faithfully   paid.      I   acknowledge   that 
such  a  debt  exists,  that  a  tour  of  duty,  in  whatever 
line  he  can  be  most  useful  to  his  country,  is  due  from  every 
individual     .     .     .     there  has  been  a  time     .     .     .     when 
perhaps  the  esteem  of  the  world  was  of  higher 
9.  117     value  in  my  eye  than  everything  in  it.     But  age, 
experience,  and  reflection  preserving  to  that  only 
its  due  value,  have  set  a  higher  on  tranquillity.     The  mo- 
tion of  my  blood  no  longer  keeps  time  with  the  tumult  of 
the  world.    It  leads  me  to  seek  for  happiness  in  the  lap  and 


35 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

love  of  my  family,  in  the  society  of  my  neighbors  and  my 
books,  in  the  wholesome  occupations  of  my  farm  and  my 
affairs,  in  an  interest  or  affection  in  every  bud  that  opens, 
in  every  breath  that  blows  around  me,  in  an  entire  freedom 
of  rest,  of  motion,  of  thought,  owing  account  to  myself 
alone  of  my  hours  and  actions. 

NO  GROUND  of  support  for  the  executive  will  ever 
be  so  sure  as  a  complete  knowledge  of  their  pro- 
ceedings by  the  people;  and  it  is  only  in  cases 
where  the  public  good  would  be  injured,  and  because  it 
would  be  injured,  that  proceedings  should  be  secret. 
9.  262. 

IN  TRUTH,   I  did  not  know  myself  under  the  pens 
either  of  my  friends  or  foes.     It  is  unfortunate  for 
our  peace,  that  unmerited  praise  has  not  the  power 
to  heal.    These  are  hard  wages  for  the  services  of  all  the 
active  and  healthy  years  of  one's  life.     I  had  retired  after 
five  and  twenty  years  of  constant  occupation  in 
9-  353-     public  affairs,  and  total  abandonment  of  my  own. 
I  retired  much  poorer  than  when  I  entered  the 
public  service,  and  desired  nothing  but  rest  and  oblivion. 
.     .     .     I  have  no  ambition  to  govern  men;  no  passion 
which  would  lead  me  to  delight  to  ride  in  the  storm.     .     .     . 
There  is  no  bankrupt  law  in  heaven  by  which  you  can  get 
off  with  shillings  on  the  pound.     .     .     . 

.  .  .  I  love  to  see  honest  and  honorable  men  at  the 
helm,  men  who  will  not  bend  their  politics  to  their  purses, 
nor  pursue  measures  by  which  they  may  profit,  and  then 
profit  by  their  measures. 


MASTER   THOUGHTS  OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


I 
I 


D 


HAVE  no  ambition  to  govern  men.    It  is  a  painful  and 
thankless  office. 
9-  357- 

THINK  with  the  Romans  that  the  general  to-day  should 
be  a  soldier  to-morrow,  if  necessary. 
9-  358. 


ELAY  is  preferable  to  error. 
8.  338. 


WHEN  a  man  whose  life  has  been  marked  by 
its  candor  has  given  a  latter  opinion  contrary 
to  a  former  one,  it  is  probably  the  result  of 
further  inquiry,  reflection,  and  conviction. 
9.  380. 

POLITICAL  dissension  is  doubtless  a  less  evil  than 
the  lethargy  of  despotism,  but  still  it  is  a  great  evil, 
and  it  would  be  as  worthy  the  efforts  of  the  patriot 
as  of  the  philosopher,  to  exclude  its  influence,  if  possible, 
from  social  life.    The  good  are  rare  enough  at  best.    There 
is  no  reason  to  subdivide  them  by  artificial  lines. 
9.  389.     But  whether  we  shall  be  able  so  far  to  perfect 
the  principles  of  society,  as  that  political  opinions 
shall,  in  its  course,  be  as  inoffensive  as  those  of  philosophy, 
mechanics,  or  any  other,  may  be  well  doubted. 

THEY  begin  to  see  to  what  port  their  leaders  were 
steering  during  their  slumbers,  and  there  is  yet 
time  to  haul  in.     ...     All  can  be  done  peace- 
ably, by  the  people  confining  their  choice  of  representa- 


37 


449716 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

tives  and  senators  to  persons  attached  to  republican  gov- 
ernment and  the  principles  of   1776,  not  office- 

9.  420.     hunters,  but  farmers,  whose  interests  are  entirely 

agricultural.  Such  men  are  the  true  representa- 
tives of  the  great  American  Interest,  and  are  alone  to  be 
relied  on  for  expressing  the  proper  American  sentiments. 
We  owe  gratitude  to  France,  justice  to  England,  good 
will  to  all,  and  subservience  to  none. 

I  DO  then,  with  sincere  zeal,  wish  an  inviolable  preserva- 
tion of  our  present  federal  Constitution,  according  to 
the  true  sense  in  which  it  was  adopted  by  the  States, 

that  in  which  it  was  advocated  by  its  friends.     ...     I 

^ 

am  for  preserving  to  the  States  the  powers  not, yielded  by 
them  to  the  Union,  and  to  the  legislature  of  the 

10.  74.     Union  its  constitutional  share  in  the  division  of 

powers;  and  I  am  not  for  the  transferring  all  the 
powers  of  the  States  to  the  General  Government,  and  all 
those  of  that  government  to  the  executive  branch.  I  am 
for  a  government  rigorously  frugal  and  simple,  applying* 
all  the  possible  savings  of  the  public  revenue  to  the  dis- 
charge of  the  national  debt ;  and  not  for  a  multiplication  of 
officers  and  salaries  merely  to  make  partisans,  and  for  in- 
creasing, by  every  device,  the  public  debt,  on  the  principle 
of  its  being  a  public  blessing. 

I  am  for  relying  for  internal  defence  upon  our  militia 
solely  till  actual  invasion,  and  for  such  a  naval  force  only 
as  may  protect  our  coasts  and  harbors  from  such  depreda- 
tions as  we  have  experienced,  and  not  for  a  standing  army 
in  times  of  peace,  which  may  overawe  the  public  sentiment ; 
nor  for  a  navy,  which,  by  its  own  expenses  and  the  eternal 
wars  in  which  it  will  implicate  us,  will  grind  us  with  public 
burdens,  and  sink  us  under  them.  I  am  for  free  commerce 

38 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

with  all  nations;  political  connection  with  none;  and  little 
or  no  diplomatic  establishment.  And  I  am  not  for  linking 
ourselves  by  new  treaties  with  the  quarrels  of  Europe;  en- 
tering that  field  of  slaughter  to  preserve  their  balance,  or 
joining  in  the  confederacy  of  kings  to  war  against  the 
principles  of  liberty.  I  am  for  freedom  of  religion,  and 
against  all  manoeuvres  to  bring  about  a  legal  ascendency 
of  one  sect  over  another;  for  freedom  of  the  press,  and 
against  all  violations  of  the  Constitution  to  silence,  by  force, 
and  not  by  reason,  the  complaints  or  criticisms,  just  or  un- 
just, of  our  citizens  against  the  conduct  of  their  agents. 


R 


EASON,  not  rashness,  is  the  only  means  of  bring- 
ing our  fellow-citizens  to  their  true  minds. 
10.  89. 


I 


T  IS  the  sick  who  need  medicine  and  not  the  well. 
10.  103. 


OUR  COUNTRY  is  too  large  to  have  all  its  affairs 
directed  by  a  single  government.    Public  servants 
at  such  a  distance,  and  from  under  the  eye  of  their 
constituents,  must,  from  the  circumstance  of  distance,  be 
unable  to  administer  and  overlook  all  the  details  necessary 
for  the  good  government  of  the  citizens,  and  the 
10.  167.  same  circumstance,  by  rendering  detection  impos- 
sible to  their  constituents,  will  invite  the    public 
agents  to  corruption,  plunder,  and  waste     .     .     .    the  true 
theory  of  our  constitution  is  surely  the  wisest  and  best,  that 
the  States  are  independent  as  to  everything  within  them- 
selves, and  united  as  to  everything  respecting  foreign  na- 
tions. 


39 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

WHEN  GREAT  evils  happen,  I  am  in  the  habit 
of  looking  out  for  what  good  may  arise  from 
them  as  consolations  to  us,  and  Providence  has 
so  established  the  order  of  things,  as  that  most  evils  are  the 
means  of  producing  some  good.     The  yellow  fever  will 
discourage   the   growth   of   great   cities   as   pesti- 
10.  173.  lential  to  the  morals,  the  health,  and  the  liberties 
of  man.     True,  they  nourish  some  of  the  elegant 
arts,  but  the  useful  ones  can  thrive  elsewhere,  and  less  per- 
fection in  the  others,  with  more  health,  virtue,  and  freedom 
would  be  my  choice.     ~.     .     .     I  have  sworn  upon  the  altar 
of  God  eternal  hostility  against  every  form  of  tyranny  over 
the  mind  of  man. 

MANY  ATTEMPTS  have  been  made  to  obtain  terms 
and  promises  from  me.    I  have  declared  to  them 
unequivocally,  that  I  would  not  receive  the  gov- 
ernment on  capitulation,  that  I  would  not  go  into  it  with 
my  hands  tied. 

IO.   2OI. 

IN  THE  discharge  of  my  functions  here  (as  President 
of  the  Senate),  it  has  been  my  conscientious  endeavor 
to  observe  impartial  justice,  without  regard  to  per- 
sons or  subjects,  and  if  I  have  failed  in  impressing  this  upon 
the  mind  of  the  Senate,  it  will  be  to  me  a  circumstance  of 
deep  regret.    I  may  have  erred  at  times — no  doubt 
10.  212.  I  have  erred ;  this  is  the  law  of  human  nature.    For 
honest  errors,  however,  indulgence  may  be  hoped. 

THAT  PEACE,  safety,  and  concord  may  be  the  por- 
tion of  our  native  land,  and  be  long  enjoyed  by 
our  fellow-citizens,  is  the  most  ardent  wish  of  my 
heart,  and  if  I  can  be  instrumental  in  procuring  or  preserv- 

40 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ing  them,  I  shall  think  I  have  not  lived  in  vain.  In  every 
country  where  man  is  free  to  speak  and  think, 
10.  235.  differences  of  opinion  will  arise  from  differences 
of  perception,  and  the  imperfection  of  reason ;  but 
these  differences,  when  permitted,  as  in  this  happy  country, 
to  purify  themselves  by  free  discussion,  are  but  as  passing 
clouds  overspreading  our  land  transiently,  and  leaving  our 
horizon  more  bright  and  serene.  That  love  of  order  and 
obedience  to  laws,  which  so  remarkably  characterize  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  are  sure  pledges  of  eternal 
tranquility;  and  the  elective  franchise,  if  guarded  as  the 
ark  of  our  safety,  will  peaceably  dissipate  all  combinations 
to  subvert  a  Constitution  dictated  by  the  wisdom  and  rest- 
ing on  the  will  of  the  people.  That  will  is  the  foundation 
of  any  government,  and  to  protect  its  free  expression  should 
be  our  first  object. 

I  SINCERELY  wish  with  you  to  see  our  government  so 
secured  as  to  depend  less  on  the  character  of  the  per- 
son in  whose  hands  it  is  trusted.    Bad  men  will  some- 
times get  in,  and  with  such  an  immense  patronage  may 
make  great  progress  in  corrupting  the  public  mind  and 
principles.     This  is  a  subject  with  which  wisdom 
10.  237.  and  patriotism  should  be  occupied. 

I  KNOW  that  in  stopping  thus  short  in  the  career  of 
removal   (of  officers)   I  shall  give  great  offence  to 
many  of  my  friends.   That  torrent  has  been  pressing 
me  heavily,  and  will  require  all  my  force  to  bear 
10.  241.  up  against;  but  my  maxim  is  "fiat  justitia,  ruat 
coelum." 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  CONSTITUTION  on  which  our  Union  rests 
shall  be  administered  by  me  according  to  the  safe 
and   honest  meaning  contemplated  by  the   plain 
understanding  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  at  the 
time  of  its  adoption.     .     .     .     The  energies  of  the  nation, 
as  depends  upon  me,   shall  be  reserved  for  im- 
10.  248.  provement  of  the  condition  of  man,  not  wasted  in 
his  extinction.    The  lamentable  resource  of  war  is 
not  authorized  for  evils  of  imagination,  but  for  those  actual 
injuries  only,  which  would  be  more  destructive  of  our  well 
being  than  war  itself.     Peace,  Justice,  and  liberal  inter- 
course, with  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  will,  I  hope,  with 
all  nations,  characterize  this  commonwealth. 

OPINION,  and  the  just  maintenance  of  it,  shall  never 
be  a  crime  in  my  view,  nor  bring  injury  on  the  in- 
dividual. 
10.  250. 

IT  WILL  be  a  great  blessing  to  our  country  if  we  can 
once  more  restore  harmony  and  social  love  among  its 
citizens.    I  confess,  as  to  myself,  it  is  almost  the  first 
object  of  my  heart,  and  one  to  which  I  would 
10.  153.  sacrifice  everything  but  principle. 

THE  RIGHT  of  opinion  shall  suffer  no  invasion  from 
me.    Those  who  have  acted  well  have  nothing  to 
fear,  however  they  may  have  differed  from  me  in 
opinion ;  those  who  have  done  ill,  however,  have  nothing  to 
hope ;  nor  shall  I  fail  to  do  justice  lest  it  should  be  ascribed 
to  that  difference  of  opinion.    A  coalition  of  senti- 
10.  254.  ments  is  not  for  the  interests  of  the  printers.  They 
.     .     .     live  by  the  zeal  they  can  kindle,  and  the 
schisms  they  can  create.     It  is  the  contest  of  opinion  in 

42 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

politics  as  well  as  religion  which  makes  us  take  great  in- 
terest in  them,  and  bestow  our  money  liberally  on  those  who 
furnislr  aliment  to  our  appetite  ...  so  the  printers  can 
never  leave  us  in  a  state  of  perfect  rest  and  union  of  opin- 
ion. They  would  be  no  longer  useful,  and  would  have  to 
go  to  the  plow  .  .  .  however,  the  steady  character  of 
our  countrymen  is  a  rock  to  which  we  may  safely  moor; 
and  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  papers  to  dissemi- 
nate early  discontents,  I  expect  that  a  just,  dispassionate, 
and  steady  conduct,  will  at  length  rally  to  a  proper  system 
the  great  body  of  our  country. 

Unequivocal  in  principle,  reasonable  in  manner,  we  shall 
be  able,  I  hope,  to  do  a  great  deal  of  good  to  the  cause  of 
freedom  and  harmony. 


I  AM  sensible  of  how  far  I  should  fall  short  of  effecting 
all  the  reformation  which  reason  would  suggest,  and 
experience  approve,  were  I  free  to  do  whatever  I 
thought  best;  but  when  we  reflect  how  difficult  it  is  to 
move  or  inflect  the  great  machine  of  society,  how  impossi- 
ble to  advance  the  notions  of  a  whole  people  sud- 
10.  255.  denly  to  ideal  right,  we  see  the  wisdom  of  Solon's 
remark,   that  no  more  good  must  be  attempted 
than  the  nation  can  bear,  and  that  all  will  be  chiefly  to  re- 
form the  waste  of  public  money,  and  thus  drive  away  the 
vultures  who  prey  upon  it,  and  improve  some  little  on  old 
routines. 


TO   PRESERVE  the  peace   of  our   fellow-citizens, 
promote    their    prosperity  and  happiness,   reunite 
opinion,  cultivate  a  spirit  of  candor,  moderation, 
charity,  and  forbearance  towards  one  another,  are  objects 


43 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

calling  for  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  every  good  man  and 
patriot.  Our  religion  enjoins  it;  our  happiness  de- 
10.  262.  mands  it,  and  no  sacrifice  is  requisite  but  of  pas- 
sions hostile  to  both.  It  is  a  momentous  truth, 
and  happily  of  universal  impression  on  the  public  mind, 
that  our  safety  rests  on  the  preservation  of  our  Union.  Our 
citizens  have  wisely  formed  themselves  into  one  nation 
as  to  others  and  several  States  as  among  themselves.  To 
the  United  Nation  belong  our  external  and  mutual  rela- 
tions, to  each  State  severally  the  care  of  our  persons,  our 
property,  our  reputations,  and  religious  freedom. 


THE  APPROBATION  of  my  ancient  friends,  is, 
above  all  things,  the  most  grateful  to  my  heart. 
They  know  for  what  objects  we  relinquished  the 
delights  of  domestic  society,  tranquility,  and  science,  and 
committed  ourselves  to  the  ocean  of  revolution,  to  wear 

out  the  only  life  God  has  given  us  here  in  scenes 
10.  301.  the  benefits  of  which  will  accrue  only  to  those 

who  follow  us.  Surely,  we  had  in  view  to  obtain 
the  theory  and  practice  of  good  government ;  and  how  any, 
who  seemed  so  ardent  in  this  pursuit,  could  have  .  .  . 
supposed  we  meant  only  to  put  our  government  into  other 
hands,  but  not  other  forms,  is  indeed  wonderful.  The 
lesson  we  have  had  will  probably  be  useful  to  the  people 
at  large,  by  showing  to  them  how  capable  they  are  of  being 
made  the  instruments  of  their  own  bondage. 


E 


VERY  honest  man  will  suppose  honest  acts  to  flow 
from  honest  principles. 
10.  304. 


44 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

A   RESPECT  ABLE  minority  is  useful  as  censors; 
.     .     .     freemen,  thinking  differently,  and  speak- 
ing and  acting  as  they  think,  will  form  into  classes 
of  sentiment. 
10.  319. 

WE  SHALL  get  entangled  in  European  politics, 
and  figuring  more,  be  much  less  happy  and 
prosperous.  .  .  . 

10.  345.  Some  men  are  born  for  the  public.  Nature,  by  fit- 
ting them  for  the  service  of  the  human  race  on  a  broad  scale, 
has  stamped  them  with  the  evidences  of  her  destination  and 
their  duty. 

THERE  ARE  those  who,  when  they  cannot  blame 
our  acts,  have  recourse  to  the  expedient  of  im- 
puting them  to  bad  motives.  This  is  a  recourse 
which  can  never  fail  them,  because  there  is  no  act,  how- 
ever virtuous,  for  which  ingenuity  may  not  find  some  bad 

motive  .  ."  1  but  I  never  will,  by  any  word  or 
10.  376.  act,  bow  to  the  shrine  of  intolerance,  or  admit  a 

right  of  inquiry  into  the  religious  opinions  of 
others.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  bound,  you  and  I,  and 
every  one,  to  make  common  cause,  even  with  error  itself, 
to  maintain  the  common  right  of  freedom  of  conscience. 
We  ought,  with  one  heart  and  one  hand,  to  hew  down  the 
daring  and  dangerous  efforts  of  those  who  would  seduce 
the  public  opinion  to  substitute  itself  into  that  tyranny  over 
religious  faith  which  the  laws  have  so  justly  abdicated. 

I.     .     .     bless  the  Almighty  being  who,  in  gathering 
together  the  waters  under  the  heavens  into  one  place, 
divided  the  dry  land  of  your  hemisphere  from  the  dry 
land  of  ours,  and  said,   at  least,   let  there  be  peace.     I 


45 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

hope  that  peace  and  amity  with  all  nations  will  long  be 
the  character  of  our  land,  and  that  its  prosperity 

10.  400.  under   the   Charter    will   react   on   the   mind   of 

Europe,  and  profit  her  by  the  example.  .  .  . 
Washington  ....  the  moderation  of  his  desires, 
and  the  strength  of  his  judgment,  enabled  him  to  calculate 
correctly,  that  the  road  to  that  glory  which  never  dies  is 
to  use  power  for  the  support  of  the  laws  and  liberties  of 
our  country,  not  for  their  destruction;  and  his  will  accord- 
ingly survives  the  wreck  of  everything  now  living. 

THERE  is  sometimes  an  eminence  of  character  on 
which   society   have   such   peculiar   claims   as   to 
control  the  predilections  of  the  individual  for  a  par- 
ticular walk  of  happiness,  and  restrain  him  to  that  alone  aris- 
ing from  the  present  and  future  benedictions  of  mankind. 
8.  348. 

THE  MINORITY,  having  no  other  means  of  ruling 
the  majority,  will  give  a  price  for  auxiliaries,  and 
that  price  must  be  principle. 

11.  24. 

WHEN  YOU  and  I  look  back  upon  the  country 
over  which  we  have  passed,  what  a  field  of 
slaughter  does  it  exhibit!     Where  are  all  the 
friends  who  entered  it  with  us,  under  all  the   inspiring 
energies  of  health  and  hope?    As  if  pursued  by  the  havoc 
of  war  they  are  strewed  by  the  way,  some  earlier, 
n.  31.     some  later,  and  scarce  a  few  stragglers  remain  to 
count  the  numbers  fallen,  and  to  mark  yet,  by 
their  own  fall,  the  last  footsteps  of  their  party.     Is  it  a 
desirable  thing  to  bear  up  through  the  heat  of  the  action, 
to  witness  the  death  of  all  our  companions,  and  merely  be 
the  last  victim  ?    I  doubt  it.    We  have,  however,  the  travel- 

46 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

lers'  consolation.  Every  step  shortens  the  distance  we  have 
to  go;  the  end  of  our  journey  is  in  sight,  the  bed  wherein 
we  are  to  rest,  and  to  rise  in  the  midst  of  the  friends  we 
have  lost.  "We  sorrow  not,  then,  as  others  that  have  no 
hope";  but  look  forward  to  the  day  which  "joins  us  to  the 
great  majority."  But  whatever  is  to  be  0ur  destiny,  wis- 
dom, as  well  as  duty,  dictates  that  we  should  acquiesce  in 
the  will  of  Him  whose  it  is  to  give  and  take  away,  and  be 
contented  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  who  are  still  permitted 
to  be  with  us. 

OF  THOSE  connected  by  blood,  the  number  does  not 
depend  on  us.     But  friends  we  have,  if  we  have 
merited  them.     Those  of  our  earliest  years  stand 
nearest  in  our  affections, 
ii.  32. 

AMIDST   the   direct   falsehoods,   the   misrepresenta- 
tions of  truth,  the  calumnies,  and  the  insults  re- 
sorted to  by  a  faction  to  mislead  the  public  mind, 
and  to  overwhelm  those  entrusted  with  its  interests,  our 
support  is  to  be  found  in  the    approving    voice    of    our 
conscience  and  our  country,  in  the  testimony  of 
ii.  33.     our    fellow-citizens,   that   their    confidence   is   not 
shaken  by  these  artifices.     ...     I  may  err  in 
my  measures,  but  never  shall  deflect  from  the  intention  to 
fortify  the  public  liberty  by  every  possible  means,  and  to 
put  it  out  of  the  power  of  the  few  to  riot  on  the  labors  of 
the  many. 

No  experiment  can  be  more  interesting  than  that  we 
are  now  trying,  and  which  we  trust  will  end  in  estab- 
lishing the  fact  that  man  may  be  governed  by  reason  and 
truth.  Our  first  object  should,  therefore,  be  to  leave  open 
to  him  all  the  avenues  of  truth.  The  most  effectual  hitherto 


47 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

found  is  the  press.  It  is,  therefore,  the  first  shut  up  by 
those  who  fear  the  investigation  of  their  actions.  The  firm- 
ness with  which  the  people  have  withstood  the  late  abuses 
of  the  press,  the  discernment  they  have  manifested  be- 
tween truth  and  falsehood,  show  that  they  may  be  safely 
trusted  to  hear  everything  true  and  false,  and  to  form  a 
correct  judgment  between  them.  ...  I  hold  it  there- 
fore certain,  that  to  open  the  doors  of  truth,  and  to  fortify 
the  habit  of  testing  everything  by  reason,  are  the  most 
effectual  manacles  we  can  rivet  on  the  hands  of  our  suc- 
cessors to  prevent  their  manacling  the  people  with  their 
own  consent.  .  .  .  Three  sons,  and  hopeful  ones,  too, 
are  a  rich  treasure.  I  rejoice  when  I  hear  of  young  men 
of  virtue  and  talents,  worthy  to  receive,  and  likely  to  pre- 
serve the  splendid  inheritance  of  self-government,  which 
we  have  acquired  and  shaped  for  them. 


I   TOLERATE  with  the  utmost  latitude  the  right   of 
others  to  differ  from  me  in  opinion  without  imputing 
to  them  criminality.     I  know  too  well  the  weakness 
and  uncertainty  of  human  reason  to  wonder  at  its  different 
results.     Both  of  our  political  parties,  at  least  the  honest 
part  of  them,  agree  conscientiously  in  the  same 
ii.  52.     object — the    public    good;    but    they    differ    es- 
sentially in  what  they   deem  the  means  of  ac- 
complishing that  good     .     .     .     one  fears  most  the  ignor- 
ance of  the  people;  the  other  the  selfishness  of  rulers  inde- 
pendent of  them.    Which  is  right,  time  and  experience  will 
prove.     .     .     .     My  anxieties  on  this   subject  will   never 
carry  me  beyond  the  use  of  honorable  means  of  truth  and 
reason;  nor  have  they  ever  lessened  my  esteem  for  moral 
worth,  nor  alienated  my  affections  from  a  single  friend,  who 
did  not  first  withdraw  himself. 


48 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

MY  OPINION  originally  was  that  the  President  of 
the  United  States  should  be  elected  for  a  period 
of  seven  years,  and  forever  ineligible  afterwards. 
I  have  since  become  sensible  that  seven  years  is  too  long 
to  be  irremovable,  and  that  there  should  be  a  peaceable  way 

of  withdrawing  a  man  in  midway  who  is  do- 
ii.  58.  ing  wrong.  The  service  for  eight  years,  with  a 

power  to  remove  at  the  end  of  the  first  four,  comes 
nearly  to  my  principle  as  corrected  by  experience;  and  it 
is  in  adherence  to  that  that  I  determine  to  withdraw  at  the 
end  of  my  second  term.  The  danger  is  that  the  indulgence 
and  attachments  of  the  people  will  keep  a  man  in  his  chair 
until  he  becomes  a  dotard,  that  reelection  through  life  shall 
become  habitual  and  election  for  life  follow  that.  General 
Washington  set  the  example  of  voluntary  retirement  after 
eight  years.  I  shall  follow  it.  And  a  few  more  precedents 
will  oppose  the  obstacle  of  habit  to  any  one  who  after  a 
while  shall  endeavor  to  extend  his  term. 

I  DO  NOT  express  my  sense  of  our  misfortunes  from 
any  idea  that  they  are  remediable.     I  know  that  the 
passions  of  men  will  take  their  course;  that  they  are 
not  to  be  controlled  but  by  despotism,  and  that  this  melan- 
choly truth  is  the  pretext  for  despotism. 

The  duty  of  an  upright  administration  is  to  pursue 
u.  71.     its  course  steadily;  to  know  nothing  of  these  fam- 
ily dissensions,  and  to  cherish  the  good  principles 
of  both  parties. 

IF  WE  suffer  ourselves  to  be  frightened  from  our  post 
by    mere    lying,    surely    the    enemy    will    use    that 
weapon;  for  what  one  so  cheap  to  those  of  whose 
system  of  politics  morality  makes  no  part? 


49 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  patriot,  like  the  Christian,  must  learn  that  to  bear 
revilings   and    persecutions    is    a    part    of    his    duty;    and 
in  proportion  as  the  trial  is  severe,  firmness  under  it  be- 
comes more   requisite  and  praiseworthy.     It  re- 
ii.  73.     quires,  indeed,  self-command.     But  that  will  be 
fortified  in  proportion  as  the  calls  for  its  exer- 
cise are  repeated. 

I  DEEM  it  the  duty  of  every  man  to  devote  a  certain 
portion  of  his  income  for  charitable  purposes;  and 
that  it  is  his  further  duty  to  see  it  so  applied  as  to 
do  the  most  good  of  which  it  is  capable.    This   I  believe  to 
be  best  insured  by  keeping  within  the  circle  of  his  owii  in- 
quiry and  information  the  subjects  of  distress  to 
ii.  92.     whose  relief  his  contributions  shall  be  applied. 

THERE  is  not  a  truth  on  earth  which   I   fear  or 
would   disguise.     But  secret   slanders   cannot  be 
disarmed,  because  they  are  secret, 
n.  94. 

THERE  is  a   steady  good   sense   in  the  legislature 
and  in  the  body  of  the  nation,  joined  with  good 
intentions,  which  will  lead  them  to  discern  and 
to  pursue  the  public  good  under  all  circumstances  which 
can  arise,  and  that  no  ignis  fatuus  will  be  able  long  to  lead 
them  astray, 
ii.  107. 

WE,  TOO,  shall  encounter  follies;  but  if  great, 
they  will  be  short;  if  long  they  will  be  light, 
and  the  vigor  of  our  country  will  get  the  bet- 
ter of  them, 
ii.  113. 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ALTHOUGH  our  prospect  is  peace,  our  policy  and 
purpose  are  to  provide  for  defence  by  all  those 
means  to  which  our  resources  are  competent. 

II.    121. 

WARS  and  contentions,  indeed,  fill  the  pages  of 
history   with  more  matter.     But  more  blest 
is  that  Nation  whose  silent  course  of  happi- 
ness furnishes  nothing  for  history  to  say.     This  is  what  I 
ambition  for  my  own  country,  and  what  it  has  enjoyed  for 
upwards  of  twenty  years,  while  Europe  has  been  in  con- 
stant volcanic  eruption, 
ii.  180. 

I  HAVE  the  consolation,  too,  of  having  added  nothing 
to  my  private  fortune,  during  my  public  service,  and 
of  retiring  with  hands  as  clean  as  they  are  empty. 
ii.  182. 

WITH  respect  to  the  tour  my  friends  to  the 
North  have  proposed  that  I  should  make  in 
that  quarter,  I  have  not  made  up  a  final  opin- 
ion. The  course  of  life  which  General  Washington  ran, 
civil  and  military,  the  services  he  had  rendered,  and  the 

space  he,  therefore,  occupied  in  the  affections  of 
ii.  239.  his  fellow-citizens,  take  from  his  examples  the 

weight  of  precedent  for  others,  because  no  others 
can  arrogate  to  themselves  the  claims  which  he  had  on  the 
public  homage.  To  myself,  therefore,  it  conies  as  a  new 
question,  to  be  viewed  under  all  the  phases  it  may  present. 
I  confess  that  I  am  not  reconciled  to  the  idea  of  a  chief 
magistrate  parading  himself  through  the  several  States  as 
an  object  of  public  gaze,  and  in  quest  of  an  applause  which, 
to  be  valuable,  should  be  purely  voluntary.  I  had  rather 


MASTER  THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

acquire  silent  good  will  by  a  faithful  discharge  of  my  duties 
than  owe  expressions  of  it  to  my  putting  myself  in  the  way 
of  receiving  them. 

IT  SEEMS  that  the  smaller  the  society,  the  bitterer  the 
dissensions  into  which  it  breaks.     ...     I  believe 
ours  is  to  owe  its  permanence  to  its  great  extent,  and 
the  smaller  portion  comparatively  which  can  ever  be  con- 
vulsed at  one  time  by  local  passions, 
ii.  390. 

A  FORTY  YEARS'  experience  of  popular  assemblies 
has  taught  me  that  you  must  give  them  time  for 
every   step  you  take.    If  too  hard   pushed  they 
balk,  and  the  machine  retrogrades.  /  People  generally  have 
more  feeling  for  canals  and  roads  man  education.     How- 
ever, I  hope  we  can  advance  them  with  equal  pace. 

11.  400. 

FOR  MYSELF  I  have  nothing  further  to  ask  of  the 
world  than  to  preserve  in  retirement  so  much  of 
its  esteem  as  I  may  have  fairly  earned,  and  to  be 
permitted  to  pass  in  tranquillity,  in  the  bosom  of  my  fam- 
ily and  friends,  the  days  which  yet  remain  for  me.     Hav- 
ing reached  the  harbor  myself,  I  shall  view  with 

12.  8.      anxiety  (but  certainly  not  with  a  wish  to  be  in 

their    place)    those    who    are  still  buffeting    the 
storm,  uncertain  of  their  fate. 

I  CANNOT  but  be  deeply  sensible  of  the  good  opinion 
you  are  pleased  to  express  of  my  conduct  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  our  government.     This  approbation 
of  my  fellow-citizens  is  the  richest  reward  I  can  receive. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  am  conscious  of  always  having  intended  to  do  what  was 
best  for  them;  and  never  for  a  single  moment  to 
12.  9.  have  listened  to  any  personal  interest  of  my  own. 
It  has  been  a  great  source  of  pain  to  me  to  have 
met  with  so  many  of  our  opponents,  who  had  not  the  liber- 
ality to  distinguish  between  political  and  social  opposition; 
who  transferred  at  once  to  the  person  the  hatred  they  bore 
to  his  political  opinions.  I  suppose,  indeed,  that  in  public 
life  a  man  whose  political  opinions  have  any  decided  char- 
acter, and  who  has  energy  enough  to  give  them  effect,  must 
always  expect  to  encounter  political  hostility  from  those  of 
adverse  principles.  ...  If  our  fellow-citizens,  now 
solidly  republican,  will  Sacrifice  favoritism  towards  men  for 
the  preservation  of  principle,  we  may  hope  that  no  divisions 
will  again  endanger  a  degeneracy  in  our  government. 

I  SEE  with  pleasure     ...    a  sound  recurrence  to  the 
first  principles  on  which  our  government  was  founded 
.    .     .     adjust  line,,  drawn  between  a  wholesome  at- 
tention to  the  conduct  of  rulers,  and  a  too  ready  censure  of 
that  conduct  on  every  unfounded  rumor ;  (between  the  love 
of   Peace,   and   the  determination   to   meet  War, 
12.  17.     when  its  evils  shall  be  less  intolerable  than  the 
wrong  it  is  meant  to  correct/    .     .     .To     .     .     . 
a  union  of  effort  may  our  citizens  ever  rally,  minorities 
falling  cordially,  on  the  decision  of  a  question,  into  the 
ranks  of  the  majority,  and  bearing  always  in  mind  that  a 
nation  ceases  to  be  republican  only  when  the  will  of  the 
majority  ceases  to  be  the  law. 

NO  INTERESTS  are  dearer  to  men  than  those  which 
ought  to  be  secured  to  them  by  their  form  of  gov- 
ernment, and  none  deserve  better  of  them  than 
chose  who  contribute  to  the  amelioration  of  that  form.    The 


53 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

consciousness  of  having  deserved  well  of  mankind  for  your 
endeavors  to  be  useful  to  them  in  this  line  will 
12.  256.  be  itself  a  high  reward,  to  which  will  be  added  the 
homage  of  those  who  shall  have  reaped  the  bene- 
fits of  them. 

WITHIN  a  few  days  I  retire  to  my  family,  my 
books,  and  farms ;  and  having  gained  the  har- 
bor myself,  I  shall  look  on  my  friends  still 
buffeting  the   storm   with   anxiety,    indeed,   but   not   with 
envy.     Never  did  a  prisoner,  released  from  his  chains,  feel 
such  relief  as  I  shall  on  shaking  off  the  shackles 
12.  258.  of  power.    'Nature  intended  me  for  the  tranquil 
pursuits  of  science,   by  rendering  them   my   su- 
preme delight.     But  the  enormities  of  the  times  in  which 
I  have  lived  have  forced  me  to  take  a  part  in  resisting 
them,  and  to  commit  myself  on  the  boisterous  ocean  of  po- 
litical passions.     I  thank  God  for  the  opportunity  of  retir- 
ing from  them  without  censure,  and  carrying  with  me  the 
most  consoling  proofs  of  public  approbation. 

RETURNING  to  the  scenes  of  my  birth  and  early 
life,  to  the  society  of  those  with  whom  I   was 
raised,  and  who  have  been  ever  'dear  to  me,  I  re- 
ceive,  fellow-citizens    and    neighbors,   with    inexpressible 
pleasure,  the  cordial  welcome  you  are  so  good  as  to  give 
me.     Long  absent  on  duties  which  the  history  of 
12.  269.  a  wonderful  era  made  incumbent  on  those  called 
to  them,  the  pomp,  the  turmoil,  the  bustle,  and 
splendor  of  office  have  drawn  but  deeper  sighs   for  the 
tranquil  and  irresponsible  occupations  of  private  life,  for 
the  enjoyment  of  an  affectionate  intercourse  with  you,  my 
neighbors  and  friends,  and  the  endearments  of  family  love, 
which  nature  has  given  us  all,  as  the  sweetener  of  every 

54 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

hour.  For  these  I  gladly  lay  down  the  distressing  burden 
of  power  and  seek,  with  my  fellow-citizens,  repose  and 
safety  under  the  watchful  cares,  the  labors,  and  perplexi- 
ties of  younger  and  abler  minds. 

TO  THOSE  whose  views  are  simple  and  direct,  it  is 
a  great  comfort  to  do  business  with  frank  and 
honorable  minds. 
12.  309. 

IN  A  GOVERNMENT  like  ours,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
chief  magistrate,  in  order  to  enable  himself  to  do  all 
the  good  which  his  station  requires,  to  endeavor,  by 
all  honorable  means,  to  unite  in  himself  the  confidence  of 
the  whole  people.  This  alone,  in  any  case,  where  the  whole 
energy  of  the  nation  is  required,  can  produce  a 
12.  353.  union  of  powers  of  the  whole,  and  point  them  in 
a  single  direction,  as  if  all  constituted  but  one 
body  and  one  mind,  and  this  alone  can  render  a  weaker 
nation  unconquerable  by  a  stronger  one.  Toward  acquir- 
ing the  confidence  of  the  people,  the  very  first  measure  is 
to  satisfy  them  of  his  disinterestedness,  and  that  he  is  di- 
recting their  affairs  with  a  single  eye  to  their  good,  and  not 
to  build  up  fortunes  for  himself  and  family,  and  especially 
that  the  officers  appointed  to  transact  their  business,  are 
appointed  because  they  are  the  fittest  men,  not  because  they 
are  his  relations.  So  prone  are  they  to  suspicion,  that  where 
a  President  appoints  a  relation  of  his  own,  however  worthy, 
they  will  believe  that  favor,  not  merit,  was  the  motive.  I 
therefore  laid  it  down  as  a  law  of  conduct  for  myself,  never 
to  give  an  appointment  to  a  relation. 


I 


FIND  in  old  age  that  the  impressions  of  youth  are  the 
most  lasting.  Some  friends  indeed  have  left  me  by 
the  way,  seeking,  by  different  political  path,  the  same 


55 


MASTER  THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

object,  their  country's  good,  which  I  pursued  with  the  crowd 
along  the  common  highway.  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  me  that 

I  was  not  the  first  to  leave  them.  I  have  never 
12.  356.  thought  that  a  difference  in  political,  any  more 

than  in  religious  opinions,  should  disturb  the 
friendly  intercourse  of  society.  There  are  so  many  other 
topics  on  which  friends  may  converse  and  be  happy  that 
it  is  wonderful  they  would  select  of  preference  the  only 
one  on  which  they  cannot  agree. 

IT  IS  a  blessing,  however,  that  our  people  are  reason- 
able ;  that  they  are  kept  so  well  informed  of  the  state 
of  things  as  to  judge  for  themselves,  to  see  the  true 
sources  of  their  difficulties,  and  to  maintain  their  confidence 
undiminished  in  the  wisdom  and  integrity  of  their  function- 
aries.    Made  virtute,  therefore.     Continue  to  go 
12.  357.  straight  forward,  pursuing  always  that  which  is 
right,  as  the  only  clue  which  can  lead  us  out  of 
the  labyrinth.     Let  nothing  be  spared  of  either  reason  or 
passion  to  preserve  the  public  confidence  entire,  as  the  only 
rock  of  our  safety. 

In  times  of  peace  the  people  look  most  to  their  representa- 
tives, but  in  war,  to  the  executive  solely. 

X 

MONEY,  and  not  morality,  is  the  principle  of  com- 
merce and  commercial  nations.     ...     It  may 
be  asked,  what,  in  the  nature  of  her  government, 
unfits  England  for  the  observation  of  moral  duties?     In 
the  first  place  her  King  is  a  cypher;  his  only  function  be- 
ing to  name  the  oligarchy  which  is  to  govern  her. 
12.  376.  The  parliament  is,  by  corruption,  the  mere  instru- 
ment of  the  will  of  the  administration.     The  real 
power  and  property  in  the  government  is  in  the  great  aris- 
tocratical  families  of  the  nation.     The  nest  of  office  being 

56 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

too  small  for  all  of  them  to  cuddle  into  at  once,  the  contest 
is  eternal,  which  shall  crowd  the  other  out.  For  this  pur- 
pose they  are  divided  into  two  parties,  the  INS  and  the 
OUTS,  so  equal  in  weight  that  a  small  matter  turns  the 
balance.  To  keep  themselves  in,  when  they  are  in,  every 
stratagem  must  be  practised,  every  artifice  used  which  may 
flatter  the  pride,  the  passions  or  power  of  the  nation.  Jus- 
tice, Honor,  Faith  must  yield  to  the  necessity  of  keeping 
themselves  in  place.  The  question  whether  a  measure  is 
moral  is  never  asked;  but  whether  it  will  nourish  the 
avarice  of  their  merchants,  or  the  piratical  spirit  of  their 
navy,  or  produce  any  other  effect  which  may  strengthen 
them  in  their  places.  As  to  engagements,  however  posi- 
tive, entered  into  by  the  predecessors  of  the  INS,  why,  they 
were  their  enemies ;  they  did  everything  which  was  wrong ; 
and  to  reverse  everything  which  they  did  must,  therefore, 
be  right.  This  is  the  true  character  of  the  English  Gov- 
ernment in  practice,  however  it  may  be  in  theory;  and  it 
presents  the  singular  phenomenon  of  a  nation,  the  indi- 
viduals of  which  are  as  faithful  to  their  private  engage- 
ments and  duties,  as  honorable,  as  worthy  as  those  of  any 
nation  on  Earth,  and  yet  whose  government  is  the  most 
unprincipled  at  this  day  known.  .  .  .  When  I  observed, 
however,  that  the  King  of  England  was  a  cypher,  I  did 
not  mean  to  confine  the  observation  to  the  mere  indi- 
vidual now  on  that  throne.  The  practice  of  Kings  marry- 
ing only  in  the  families  of  Kings,  has  been  that  of  Europe 
for  centuries.  Now,  take  any  race  of  animals,  confine  them 
in  idleness  and  inaction,  whether  in  a  stye,  a  stable,  or  a 
stateroom,  pamper  them  with  high  diet,  gratify  all  their 
sexual  appetites,  immerse  them  in  sensualities,  nourish  their 
passions,  let  everything  bend  before  them,  and  banish  what- 
ever might  lead  them  to  think,  and  in  a  few  generations 
they  become  all  body  and  no  mind;  and  this,  too,  by  a  law 


57 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

of  nature,  by  that  very  law  by  which  we  are  in  constant 
practice  of  changing  the  characters  and  propensities  of  the 
animals  we  raise  for  our  own  purposes.  Such  is  the 
regimen  in  raising  Kings,  and  in  this  way  they  have  gone 
on  for  centuries.  While  in  Europe,  I  often  amused  myself 
with  contemplating  the  characters  of  the  then  reigning 
sovereigns  of  Europe.  .  .  .  Louis  XVI.  was  a  fool, 
of  my  own  knowledge,  and  in  despite  of  the  answers  made 
for  him  at  the  trial.  The  King  of  Spain  was  a  fool,  and  of 
Naples  the  same.  They  passed  their  lives  in  hunting,  and 
dispatched  two  couriers  a  week,  one  thousand  miles,  to  let 
each  other  know  what  game  they  had  killed  the  preceding 
days.  The  King  of  Sardinia  was  a  fool.  All  these  were 
Bourbons.  The  Queen  of  Portugal,  a  Braganza,  was  an 
idiot  by  nature.  And  so  was  the  King  of  Denmark.  Their 
sons,  as  regents,  exercised  the  powers  of  government.  The 
King  of  Prussia,  successor  to  the  great  Frederick,  was  a 
mere  hog  in  body  as  well  as  in  mind.  Gustavus  of  Sweden 
and  Joseph  of  Austria  were  really  crazy,  and  George  of 
England,  you  know,  was  in  a  strait  waistcoat.  There 
remained  then  none  but  old  Catherine,  who  had  been  too 
lately  picked  up  to  have  lost  her  common  sense. 


In  this  state  Bonaparte  found  Europe;  and  it  was  this 
state  of  its  rulers  which  lost  it  almost  without  a  strug- 
gle. These  animals  had  become  without  mind  and  power- 
less; and  so  will  every  hereditary  monarch  be  after  a  few 
generations.  Alexander,  the  grandson  of  Catherine,  is  as 
yet  an  exception.  He  is  able  to  hold  his  own.  But  he  is 
only  of  the  third  generation.  His  race  is  not  yet  worn 
out.  And  so  endeth  the  book  of  Kings,  from  all  of  whom 
the  Lord  deliver  us,  and  have  you,  my  friend,  and  all  such 
good  men  and  true,  in  his  holy  keeping. 

58 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THERE  will  be  danger  that  what  is  here  proposed, 
though  but  an  ordinary  act  of  duty,  may  be  di- 
verted into  one  of  ostentation,  but  malice  will  al- 
ways find  bad  motives  for  good  actions.     Shall  we  there- 
fore never  do  good? 
12.  391. 

IF  I  HAVE  left  in  the  breast  of  my  fellow-citizens  a 
sentiment  of  satisfaction  with  my  conduct  in  the 
transaction  of  their  business,  it  will  soften  the  pillow 
of  my  repose  through  the  residue  of  life.  The  question 
which  you  propose,  whether  circumstances  do  not  occur 

sometimes,  which  make  it  a  duty  in  officers  of  high 
12.  418.  trust,  to  assume  authorities  beyond  the  law,  is  easy 

of  solution  in  principle,  but  sometimes  embar- 
rassing in  practice.  A  strict  observance  of  the  written  laws 
is  doubtless  one  of  the  high  duties  of  a  good  citizen,  but 
it  is  not  the  highest.  The  laws  of  necessity,  of  self-preser- 
vation, of  saving  our  country  when  in  danger,  are  of  higher 
obligation.  To  lose  our  country  by  a  scrupulous  adherence 
to  written  law  would  be  to  lose  the  law  itself,  with  life, 
liberty,  property,  and  all  those  who  are  enjoying  them  with 
us,  thus  absurdly  sacrificing  the  end  to  the  means.  When 
in  the  battle  of  Germantown,  General  Washington  was 
annoyed  from  Chew's  house,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  plant 
cannon  against  it,  although  the  property  of  a  citizen.  When 
he  besieged  Yorktown  he  levelled  the  suburbs,  feeling  that 
the  laws  of  property  must  be  postponed  to  the  safety  of 
the  nation.  While  the  army  was  before  York,  the  Gover- 
nor of  Virginia  took  horses,  carriages,  provisions,  and  even 
men,  by  force,  to  enable  that  army  to  stay  together  till  it 
could  master  the  public  enemy,  and  he  was  justified.  .  .  . 

The    officer    who    is     called    to    act    on    this    superior 
ground  does  indeed  risk  himself  on  the  justice  of  the  con- 


59 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

trolling  powers  of  the  Constitution,  and  his  station  makes 
it  his  duty  to  incur  that  risk.  But  those  controlling  powers, 
and  his  fellow-citizens  generally,  are  bound  to  judge  ac- 
cording to  the  circumstances  under  which  he  acted.  .  .  . 
It  is  incumbent  on  those  only  who  accept  of  great  charges 
to  risk  themselves  on  great  occasions,  when  the  safety  of 
the  nation  or  some  of  its  high  interests  are  at  stake.  An 
officer  is  bound  to  obey  orders,  yet  he  would  be  a  bad  one 
if  he  should  do  it  in  cases  for  which  they  were  not  in- 
tended, and  which  involved  the  most  important  conse- 
quences. The  line  of  discrimination  between  cases  may  be 
difficult,  but  the  good  officer  is  bound  to  draw  it  at  his  own 
peril,  and  tlirow  himself  on  the  justice  of  his  country  and 
the  rectitude  of  his  motives. 


I  have  indulged  freer  views  on  this  question,  on  your 
assurance  that  they  will  not  get  into  the  hands  of  news 
writers.  I  met  their  scurrilities  without  concern  while  in 
pursuit  of  the  great  interests  with  which  I  was  charged. 
But  in  my  present  retirement  no  duty  forbids  my  wish  for 
quiet. 


CONTINUALLY  endangered  by  a  powerful  opposi- 
tion, they   (representatives)    find  it  convenient  to 
humor  the  popular  passions  at  the  expense  of  the 
public  good.    The  shipping  interest  and  their  janizaries  of 
the  navy  and  the  commercial  interest,  all  fattening  on  war, 
will   not  be  neglected  by  ministers   of   ordinary 
12.  440.  minds.     Their  tenure  of  office  is  so  infirm  that 
they  dare  not  follow  the  dictates  of  wisdom,  jus- 
tice, and  the  well  calculated  interests  of  their  country. 


60 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I   FEEL  happy     ...     in  resigning    myself    for    the 
remnant  of  life,  to  the  care    and    guardianship  of 
others.    Good  wishes  are  all  an  old  man  has  to  offer 
to  his  country  or  friends. 

12.  441. 

MR.  ADAMS     .     .     .     said:     "Well  I  understand 
that  you  are  to  beat  me  in  this  contest,  and  I  will 
say  that  I  will  be  as  faithful  a  subject  as  any 
you  have."    "Mr.  Adams,"  said  I,  "this  is  no  personal  con- 
test between  you  and  me.     Two  systems  of  principles  on 
the  subject  of  government  divide  our  fellow-citi- 

13.  5.       zens  into  two  parties.    With  one  of  these  you  con- 

cur, and  I  with  the  other.  As  we  have  been  long- 
er on  the  public  stage  than  most  of  those  now  living,  our 
names  happen  to  be  more  generally  known.  One  of  these 
parties  has  put  your  name  at  the  head,  the  other  mine." 

When  the  election  between  Burr  and  myself  was  kept 
in  suspense  by  the  federalists.  .  .  .  Mr.  Adams  said: 

.  .  .  "Sir,  the  event  of  the  election  is  within  your 
own  power.  You  have  only  to  say  that  you  will  do  justice 
to  the  public  creditors,  maintain  the  navy,  and  not  disturb 
those  holding  public  offices,  and  the  government  will  in- 
stantly be  put  in  your  hands.  We  know  it  is  the  wish  of 
the  people  that  it  should  be  so."  "Mr.  Adams,"  said  I, 
"I  know  not  what  part  of  my  conduct,  in  either  public  or 
private  life,  can  have  authorized  a  doubt  of  my  fidelity  to 
the  public  engagements.  I  say,  however,  I  will  not  come  into 
the  government  by  capitulation.  I  will  not  enter  on  it,  but 
in  perfect  freedom  to  follow  the  dictates  of  my  own  judg- 
ment." 


I 


HAVE  never  been  able  to  conceive  how  any  rational  be- 
ing could  propose  happiness  to  himself  from  the  ex- 
ercise of  power  over  others. 

61 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

.     .     .     The  true  barriers  of  our  liberty  in  this  coun- 
try are  our  State  governments;  and  the  wisest  conserva- 
tive  power   ever  contrived  by  man    is    that    of 
which   our   Revolution    and   present    government 
13.  18.     found   us   possessed.      Seventeen   distinct    States, 
amalgamated  into  one  as  to  their  foreign  concerns, 
but  single  and  independent  as  to  their  internal  administra- 
tion, regularly  organized  with  a  legislature  and  governor 
resting  on  the  choice  of  the  people  and  enlightened  by  a 
free  press,  can  never  be  so  fascinated  by  the  arts  of  one 
man  as  to  voluntarily  submit  to  his  usurpation. 

Nor  can  they  be  constrained  to  it  by  any  force  he  can 
possess.  While  that  may  paralyze  the  single  State  in 
which  it  happens  to  be  encamped,  sixteen  others,  spread 
over  a  country  of  2,000  miles  diameter,  rise  upon  every 
side  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  present  such  obstacles  to  an 
usurper  as  forever  to  stifle  ambition  in  the  first  conception 
of  that  object. 


I 


KNOW  that  the  dissolutions  of  friendship  are  among 
the  most  painful  occurrences  in  life. 
!3-  59- 


POLITICS,  like  religion,  hold  up  torches  of  martyr- 
dom to  the  reformers  of  error.     Nor  is  it  in  the 
theatre  of  Ephesus  alone  that  tumults  have  been 
excited  when  the  crafts  were  in  danger. 
13-  69. 

I  FIND  friendship  to  be  like  wine,  raw  when  new,  ripened 
with  age,   the   true   old   man's   milk  and   restorative 
cordial. 
13-  77- 


62 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

A  LETTER  from  you  (John  Adams)  calls  up  recol- 
lections very  dear  to  my  mind.    It  carries  me  back 
to    the    times    when,    beset    with    difficulties    and 
dangers,  we  were  fellow-laborers  in  the  same  cause,  strug- 
gling for  what  is  most  valuable  to  man,  his  right  of  self- 
government.     Laboring  always  at  the  same  oar, 
13.  123.  with  some  wave  ever  ahead,  threatening  to  over- 
whelm us,  and  yet  passing  harmless  under  our 
bark,  we  knew  not  how  we  rode  through  the  storm  with 
heart  and  hand  and  made  a  happy  port.     Still,  we  did  not 
expect  to  be  without  rubs  and  difficulties,  and  we  have  had 
them    .    .    .    and  so  we  have  gone  on  puzzled  and  prosper- 
ing beyond  example  in  the  history  of  man.    And  I  do  be- 
lieve we  shall  continue  to  grow,  to  multiply,  and  prosper, 
until  we  exhibit  an  association,  powerful,  wise,  and  happy 
beyond  what  has  yet  been  seen  by  men. 

I  PROFESS     ...     so  much  of  the  Roman  principle 
as  to  deem  it  honorable  for  the  general  of  yesterday 
to  act  as  a  corporal  to-day,  if  his  services  can  be  useful 
to  his  country;  holding  that  to  be  false  pride   which  post- 
pones the  public  good  to  any  private  or  personal  considera- 
tions.   But  I  am  past  service.    The  hand  of  age  is  upon  me. 
13.  186. 

THE  HAPPINESS  of  the  domestic  fireside  is  the 
first  boon  of  heaven;  and  it  is  well  it  is  so,  since 
it  is  that  which  is  the  lot  of  the  mass  of  mankind. 
13    220. 

MEN  HAVE  differed  in  opinion,  and  been  divided 
into   parties  by  these  opinions,   from    the    first 
origin  of  societies,  and  in  all  governments  where 
they  have  been   permitted   freely   to  think  and   to   speak. 

63 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  same  political  parties  which  now  agitate  the  United 
States  have  existed  through  all  times.  Whether 
13.  279.  the  power  of  the  people  or  that  of  the  aristoi 
should  prevail  were  questions  which  kept  the 
States  of  Greece  and  Rome  in  eternal  convulsions,  as  they 
now  schismatize  every  people  whose  minds  and  mouths  are 
not  shut  up  by  the  gag  of  a  despot.  And,  in  fact,  the  term 
of  whig  and  tory  belong  to  natural  as  well  as  civil  his- 
tory. They  denote  the  temper  and  constitution  of  mind 
of  different  individuals.  ...  To  come  to  our  own 
country  ...  as  soon  as  it  was  put  in  motion,  the  line 
of  division  was  drawn.  We  broke  into  two  parties,  each 
wishing  to  give  the  government  a  different  direction;  the 
one  to  strengthen  the  most  popular  branch,  the  other  the 
more  permanent  branches,  and  to  extend  their  permanence. 
.  .  .  To  me  then  it  appears  that  there  have  been  differ- 
ences of  opinion  and  party  differences,  from  the  first  estab- 
lishment of  government  to  the  present  day,  and  on  the 
same  question  which  now  divides  our  own  country;  that 
these  will  continue  through  all  time;  that  every  one  takes 
his  side  in  favor  of  the  many,  or  of  the  few,  according  to 
his  constitution,  and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  is 
placed ;  that  opinions  which  are  equally  honest  on  both  sides 
should  not  affect  personal  esteem  or  social  intercourse. 

TIME  ALONE  insensibly  wears  down  old  habits  and 
produces  small  changes  at  long  intervals,  and  to 
this  process  we  must  all  accommodate  ourselves, 
and  be  content  to  follow  those  who  will  not  follow  us. 
13-  348. 


64 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I    VERY    much    suspect    that    if    thinking    men    would 
have  the  courage  to  think  for  themselves,  and  to  speak 
what  they  think,  it  would  be  found  they  do  not  differ 
in     ...     opinions  as  much  as  is  supposed. 
13-  349- 

I  AGREE  with  you  that  there  is  a  natural  aristocracy 
among  men.  The  grounds  of  this  are  virtue  and  tal- 
ents. Formerly  bodily  powers  gave  place  among  the 
aristoi.  But  since  the  invention  of  gunpowder  has  armed 
the  weak,  as  well  as  the  strong,  with  missile  death,  bodily 
strength,  like  beauty,  good  humor,  politeness,  and 
13.  396.  other  accomplishments,  has  become  but  an  aux- 
iliary ground  of  distinction.  There  is  also  an 
artificial  aristocracy,  founded  on  wealth  and  birth,  without 
either  virtue  or  talents;  for  with  these  it  would  belong  to 
the  first  class.  The  natural  aristocracy  I  consider  as  the 
most  precious  gift  of  nature,  for  the  instruction,  the  trusts, 
the  government  of  society.  And,  indeed,  it  would  have  been 
inconsistent  in  creation  to  have  formed  man  for  social  state, 
and  not  to  have  provided  virtue  and  wisdom  enough  to 
manage  the  concerns  of  society.  May  we  not  even  say 
that  that  form  of  government  is  the  best  which  provides 
the  most  effectually  for  a  pure  selection  of  these  natural 
aristoi  into  the  offices  of  government?  The  artificial  aris- 
tocracy is  a  mischievous  ingredient  in  government,  and  pro- 
vision should  be  made  to  prevent  its  ascendency. 

CONSULT  your  own  experience,  reflect  on  the  simi- 
lar cases  which  have  happened  within  your  own 
knowledge,  and  see  if  there  ever  was  a  single  one 
in  which  such  a  mode  of  recrimination  procured  favor  to 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

him  who  used  it.  You  may  give  pain  where  perhaps  you 
wish  it,  but  be  assured  it  will  react  on  yourself 

14.  117.  with  double,  though  delayed  effect,  and  that  it  will 
be  one  of  those  incidents  of  your  life  on  which 

you  will  never  reflect  with  satisfaction.    Be  advised,  then; 

erase  it  even  from  your  memory,  and  stand  erect  before  the 

world  on  the  high  ground  of  your  own  merits,  without 

stooping  to  what  is  unworthy  either  of  your  or  their  notice. 

Remember  that  we  often  repent  of  what  we  have  said,  but 

never,  never  of  that  which  we  have  not. 

To  ourselves  in  strict  language  we  can  owe  no  duties, 
obligation  requiring  also  two  parties.  Self-love  is  there- 
fore no  part  of  morality.  Indeed,  it  is  exactly  its  counter- 
part. It  is  the  sole  antagonist  of  virtue,  leading  us  con- 
stantly by  our  propensities  to  self-gratification  in  violation 
of  our  moral  duties  to  others.  Accordingly,  it  is  against 
this  enemy  that  are  erected  the  batteries  of  moralists  and 
religionists,  as  the  only  obstacle  to  the  practice  of  moral- 
ity. Take  from  man  his  selfish  propensities,  and  he  can 
have  nothing  to  seduce  him  from  the  practice  of  virtue. 
Or  subdue  those  propensities  by  education,  instruction,  or 
restraint,  and  virtue  remains  without  a  competitor  .  .  . 
good  acts  give  us  pleasure,  but  how  happens  it  that  they 
give  us  pleasure?  Because  nature  has  implanted  in  our 
breasts  a  love  of  others,  a  sense  of  duty  to  them,  a  moral 
instinct,  in  short,  which  prompts  us  irresistibly  to  feel  and 
to  succor  their  distresses,  ...  the  creator  would,  in- 
deed, have  been  a  bungling  artist  had  he  intended  man  for 
a  social  animal,  without  planting  in  him  social  dispositions. 
It  is  true  they  are  not  planted  in  every  man,  because  there 
is  no  rule  without  exceptions ;  but  it  is  false  reasoning  which 
converts  exceptions  into  the  general  rule.  .  .  .  Nature 
has  constituted  Utility  to  man  the  standard  and  test  of 
virtue. 

66 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

WE  CANNOT  always  do  what  is  absolutely  best. 
Those  with  whom  we  act,  entertaining  differ- 
ent views,  have  the  power  and  the  right  of 
carrying  them  into  practice.    Truth  advances  and  error  re- 
cedes step  by  step  only;  and  to  do  to  our  fellow-men  the 
most  good  in  our  power,  we  must  lead  where  we 
14.  200.  can,  follow  where  we  cannot,  and  still  go  on  with 
them,  watching  always  the  favorable  moment  for 
helping  them  to  another  step. 

I  HAVE  ever  deemed  it  more  honorable  and  more  profit- 
able, too,  to  set  a  good  example  than  to  follow  a  bad 
one.     The  good  opinion  of  mankind,  like  the  lever 
of  Archimedes,  with  the  given  fulcrum,  moves  the  world. 
14.  222. 

I   SINCERELY    congratulate    you    on    Peace.     .    .    . 
Our  second  and  third  campaigns  here,  I  trust,  more 
than  redeemed  the  disgraces  of  the  first,  and  proved 
that  although  a  republican  government  is  slow  to'  move,  yet, 
when  once  in  motion,  its  momentum  becomes  irresistible. 
14.  270. 

THIS  must  be   done  with  the  consent   of   every  in- 
dividual because  the  association  being  voluntary, 
the  mere  majority  has  no  right  to  apply  the  con- 
tributions of  the  minority  to  purposes  unspecified  in  the 
agreement  of  the  (whole). 
24.  282. 

WHEN    public    opinion    changes    it  is  with  the 
rapidity  of  thought.     .     .     .     Embarked  in  the 
same  bottom,  I  am  willing  to  swim  or  sink  with 
my  fellow-citizens.     ...     I  am  a  great  friend  to  the  im- 

67 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

provements  of  roads,   canals,   and  schools.     ...     If  a 

nation  expects  to  be  ignorant  and  free,  in  a  state 

14.  382.  of  civilization,  it  expects  what  never  was  and  never 

will  be.     The  functionaries  of  every  government 

have  propensities   to  command  at  will  the  property  and 

liberty  of  their  constituents.    There  is  no  safe  deposit  for 

these  but  the  people  themselves,  nor  can  they  be  safe  with 

them  without  information.     When  the  press  is   free  and 

every  man  able  to  read,  all  is  safe. 


T 


HERE  IS  perhaps  a  degree  of  duty  to  avow  a  change 
of  opinion  called  for  by  a  change  of  circumstances. 

14-  435- 


IT  WILL  be  said  it  is  easier  to  find  faults  than  to  amend 
them.    I  do  not  think  their  amendment  so  difficult  as 
is  pretended.    Only  lay  down  true  principles  and  ad- 
here to  them  fixedly.    Do  not  be  frightened  into  surrender 
by  the  alarms  of  the  timid,  or  the  croakings  of  wealth 
against  the  ascendency    of    the    people.     .     .     . 
T5-  35-     Nomination  to  office  is  an  executive  function.    To 
give  it  to  the  legislature  as  we  do  is  a  violation 
of  the  principle  of  the  separation  of  powers.     It  swerves 
the  members  from  correctness  by  temptations  to  intrigue 
for  office  themselves,  and  to  a  corrupt  barter  of  votes ;  and 
destroys  responsibility  by  dividing  it  among  a  multitude. 
.     .     .     I  am  not  among  those  who  fear  the  people.    They, 
and  not  the  rich,  are  our  dependence  for  continued  freedom. 
And  to  preserve  their  independence,  we  must  not  let  our 
rulers  load  us  with  perpetual  debt.     We  must  make  our 
election  between  economy  and  liberty,   or  profusion  and 
servitude.     If  we  run  into  such  debts  as  that  we  must  be 
taxed  in  our  meat  and  in  our  drink,  in  our  necessaries, 
and  in  our  comforts,  in  our  labors,  and  in  our  amusements, 

68 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

for  our  callings  and  our  creeds  as  the  people  of  England 
are,  our  people  like  them  must  come  to  labor  sixteen  hours 
in  the  twenty-four  .  .  .  have  no  time  to  think,  no 
means  of  calling  the  mismanagers  to  account;  but  be  glad 
to  obtain  subsistence  by  hiring  ourselves  to  rivet  their  chains 
on  the'  necks  of  our  fellow-sufferers. 

THE  FIRST  principle  of  republicanism  is,  that  the 
lex  majoris  partis  is  the  fundamental  law  of  every 
society  of  individuals  of  equal  rights;  to  consider 
the  will  of  the  majority  enounced  by  the  majority  of  a 
single  vote,  as  sacred  as  if  unanimous,  is  the  first  of  all  les- 
sons in  importance,  yet  the  last  which  is  thoroughly  learned. 
15.  127. 

TO  SPECIAL  legislation  we  are  generally  averse,  lest 
a  principle  of  favoritism  should  creep  in  and  per- 
vert that  of  equal  rights. 
15-  139- 


N 


O  GOVERNMENT  can  continue  good,  but  under 
the  control  of  the  people. 
15-  234- 


IT  IS  true,  as  you  say,  that  we  have  differed  in  political 
opinions ;  but  I  can  say  with  equal  truth,  that  I  never 
suffered  a  political  to  become  a  personal  difference. 
15-  322- 

IF     THERE     had     been     at     any     time     a     moment 
when  we    were    off    our     guard,    and    in   a   temper 
to  let  the  whispers  of  these  people  make  us  forget 
what  we  had  known  of  each  other  for  so  many  years,  and 

69 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

years  of  so  much  trial,  yet  all  men  who  have  attended  to 
the  workings  of  the  human  mind,  who  have  seen 
15.  476.  the  false  colors  under  which  passion  sometimes 
dresses  the  actions  and  motives  of  others,  have  seen 
also  those  passions  subsiding  with  time  and  reflection,  dissi- 
pating like  mists  before  a  rising  sun,  and  restoring  to  us  the 
sight  of  all  things  in  their  true  shape  and  colors.  It  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  if,  at  our  years,  we  were  to  go  back 
an  age  to  hunt  up  imaginary  or  forgotten  facts,  to  dis- 
turb the  repose  or  affections  so  sweetening  to  the  evening 
of  our  lives.  (Letter  to  John  Adams — 1823) 


THE  EQUAL  rights  of  man,  and  the  happiness  of 
every  individual,  are  now  acknowledged  to  be  the 
only  legitimate  objects  of  government.  Modern 
times  have  the  singular  advantage  of  having  discovered 
the  only  device  by  which  these  rights  can  be  secured,  to  wit, 

government  by  the  people,  acting  not  in  person, 
15.  482.  but  by  representatives  chosen  by  themselves,  that 

is  to  say,  by  every  man  of  ripe  years  and  sane 
mind,  who  either  contributes  by  his  purse  or  person  to  the 
support  of  his  country.  .  .  .  And  true  it  is  that  the 
people,  especially  when  moderately  instructed,  are  the  only 
safe,  because  the  only  honest,  depositaries  of  the  public 
rights,  and  should  therefore  be  introduced  into  the  adminis- 
tration of  them  in  every  function  in  which  they  are  suf- 
ficient; they  will  err  sometimes  and  accidentally,  but  never 
designedly,  and  with  a  systematic  and  persevering  purpose 
of  overthrowing  the  free  principles  of  government.  Heredi- 
tary bodies,  on  the  contrary,  always  existing,  always  on 
the  watch  for  their  own  aggrandizement,  profit  of  every 
opportunity  of  advancing  the  privileges  of  their  order,  and 
encroaching  on  the  rights  of  the  people. 

70 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  AM  no  believer  in  the  amalgamation  of  parties,  nor  do 
I   consider  it  as  either  desirable  or  useful   for  the 
public;  but  only  that,  like  religious  differences,  a  dif- 
ference in  politics  should  never  be  permitted  to  enter  into 
social  intercourse,  or  to  disturb  its  friendships,  its  chari- 
ties, or  justice.     In  that  form  they  are  censors  of 
16.  73.     the  conduct  of  each  other,  and  useful  watchmen 
for  the  public.     Men,  by  their  constitutions,  are 
naturally  divided  into  two  parties:    i.  Those  who  fear  and 
distrust  the  people,  and  wish  to  draw  all  powers  from  them 
into  the  hands  of  the  higher  classes.     2.  Those  who  identify 
themselves  with  the  people,  have  confidence  in  them,  cher- 
ish and  consider  them  as  the  most  honest  and  safe,  although 
not  the  most  wise,  depository  of  the  public  interests. 


In  every  country  these  two  parties  exist,  and  in  every 
one  where  they  are  free  to  think,  speak,  and  write,  they 
will  declare  themselves.  Call  them,  therefore,  Liberals  and 
Serviles ;  Jacobins  and  Ultras ;  Whigs  and  Tories ;  Republi- 
cans and  Federalists ;  Aristocrats  and  Democrats,  or  by 
whatever  name  you  please,  they  are  the  same  parties  still, 
and  pursue  the  same  objects.  The  last  appellation  of  Aris- 
tocrats and  Democrats  is  the  true  one,  expressing  the 
essence  of  all. 


A  RECOLLECTION  of  our  former  vassalage  in  re- 
ligion and  civil  government  will  unite  the  zeal  of 
every  heart,  and  the  energy  of  every  hand,  to  pre- 
serve that  independence  in  both,  which,  under  the  favor  of 
Heaven,  a  disinterested  devotion  to  the  public  cause  first 
achieved,  and  a  disinterested  sacrifice  of  private 
1 6.  320.  interests  will  now  maintain. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

FELLOW-CITIZENS,  if  we  are  faithful  to  our  coun- 
try, if  we  acquiesce,  with  good  will,  in  the  decisions 
of  the  majority,  and  the  Nation  moves  in  mass  in 
the  same  direction,  although  it  may  not  be  that  which  every 
individual  thinks  best,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  any 
quarter. 
16.  321. 

IF,  IN   MY  retirement    to    the    humble    station  of    a 
private  citizen,  I  am  accompanied  with  the  esteem  and 
approbation  of  my  fellow-citizens,  trophies  obtained 
by  the  blood-stained  steel,  or  the  tattered  flags  of  the  tented 
field,  will  never  be  envied.     The  care  of  human  life  and 
happiness,  and  not  their  destruction,  is  the  first 
1 6.  359.  and  only  legitimate  object  of  good  government. 

SOLE     depositaries     of      the     remains     of     human 
liberty,  our  duty  to  ourselves,  to  posterity,  and  to 
mankind,  call  on  us  by  every  motive  which  is  sacred 
or  honorable,  to  watch  over  the  safety  of  our  beloved  coun- 
try, during  the  troubles  which  agitate  and  convulse  the 
residue  of  the  world,  and  to  sacrifice  to  that  all 
1 6.  362.  personal  and  local  considerations. 

IF  THEY  have  done  you  no  wrong,  have  you  a  right 
to  make  war  upon  innocent  and  unoffending  people? 
Be  assured  that  the  Great  Spirit  will  not  approve  of 
this — He  did  not  make  men  strong  that  they  might  destroy 
all  other  men.     If  your  young  men  think  that  in  this  way 
they  will  acquire  honor  as  great  warriors,  they  are 
1 6.  444.  mistaken.     Nobody  can  acquire  honor  by  doing 
what  is  wrong. 


72 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  HAVE  ever  found  in  my  progress  through  life,  that 
acting  for  the  public,  if  we  do  always  what  is  right, 
the  approbation  denied  in  the  beginning  will  surely 
follow  us  in  the  end.    It  is  from  posterity  we  are  to  expect 
remuneration  for  the  sacrifices  we  are  making  for  their 
service  of  time,  quiet,  and  good  will.    And  I  fear 
1 6.  99.     not  the  appeal. 

THIS  LETTER  will,  to  you,  be  as  one  from  the  dead. 
The  writer  will  be  in  the  grave  before  you  can 
weigh  its  counsels.     .     .     .     Adore  God.     Rever- 
ence and  cherish  your  parents.     Love  your  neighbor  as 
yourself,  and  your  country  more  than  yourself.     Be  just. 
Be  true.    Murmur  not  at  the  ways  of  Providence. 
16.  no.  So  shall  the  life  into  which  you  have  entered  be 
the  portal  to  one  of  eternal  and  ineffable  happi- 
ness.    .     .     . 

A  DECALOGUE  of  canons  for  observation  in  prac- 
tical life : 
16.  in. 
r   i.  Never  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  you  can  do  to-day. 

2.  Never  trouble  another  for  what  you  can  do  yourself. 

3.  Never  spend  your  money  before  you  have  it. 

4.  Never  buy  what  you  do  not  want,  because  it  is  cheap: 

it  will  be  dear  to  you. 

5.  Pride  costs  us  more  than  hunger,  thirst,  and  cold. 

6.  We  never  repent  of  having  eaten  too  little. 

7.  Nothing  is  troublesome  that  we  do  willingly. 

8.  How  much  pain  have  cost  us  the  evils  which  have  never 

happened. 

9.  Take  things  always  by  their  smooth  handle. 

10.  When  angry,  count  ten,  before  you  speak;  if  very  angry, 
an  hundred. 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF   THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

WHEN  men  meet  together,  they  will  make  busi- 
ness if  they  have  none;  they  will  collate  their 
grievances;   some    real,  some    imaginary,  all 
highly  painted;  they  will  communicate  to  each  other  the 
sparks  of  discontent ;  and  these  may  engender  a  flame  which 
will  consume  their  particular,  as  well  as  the  gen- 
17.  91.     eral,  happiness. 


.  >  ,.  .An  industrious  farmer  occupies  a  more  dig- 
nified place  in  the  scale  of  beings,  whether  moral  or  po- 
litical, than  a  lazy  lounger,  valuing  himself  on  his  family, 
too  proud  to  work,  and  drawing  out  a  miserable  exist- 
ence, by  eating  on  the  surplus  of  other  men's  labor,  which 
is  the  sacred  fund  of  the  helpless  poor. 

I  LONG  to  be  in  the  midst  of  tjie  children,  and  have  more 
pleasure  in  their  little  follies  than  in  the  wisdom  of 
the  wise.     .     .     . 
18.  234. 


AS  FOR    myself,  I  weaken  very  sensibly,  yet  with 
such  a  continuance  of  good  health  as  makes  me 
fear  I  shall  wear  out  very  tediously,  which  is  not 
what  one  would  wish.    I  see  no  comfort  in  outliving  one's 
friends,  and  remaining  a  mere  monument  of    the    times 
which  are  past.     I  withdraw  myself  as  much  as 
18.  297.  possible  from  politics,  and  gladly  shelter  myself 
under  the  wings  of  the  generation  for  which,  in 
our  day,  we  have  labored  faithfully  to  provide  shelter. 


74 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

MINE  IS  the  next  turn,  and  I  shall  meet  it  with 
good  will,  for  after  one's  friends  are  all  gone  be- 
fore them,  and  our  faculties  leaving  us,  one  by 
one,  why  wish  to  linger  in  mere  vegetation — as  a  solitary 
trunk  in  a  desolate  field,  from  which  all  its  former  com- 
panions have  disappeared? 
18.  310. 

THE  SOCIETY  of  our  children  is  the  sovereign  balm 
of  life,  and  the  older  we  grow  the  more  we  need  it 
to  fill  up  the  void  made  by  the  daily  losses  of  the 
companions  and  friends  of  our  youth. 
1 8.  320. 


75 


MASTER   THOUGHTS   OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


CHAPTER  IV. 
RELIGIOUS  VIEWS 

THE  laws  of  nature  have  withheld  from  us  the  means 
of  physical  knowledge  of  the  country  of  spirits,  and 
revelation  has  for  reasons  unknown  to  us,  chosen  to 
leave  us  in  the  dark,  as  we  were.    When  I  was  young  I  was 
fond  of  the  speculations  which  seemed  to  promise  some  in- 
sight into  that  hidden  country,  but  observing  at 
10.  299.     length  that  they  left  me  in  the  same  ignorance  in 
which  they  found  me,  I  have   for  many  years 
ceased  to  read  or  think  concerning  them,  and  have  reposed 
my  head  upon  the  pillow  of  ignorance  which  a  benevolent 
Creator  has  made  so  soft  for  us,  knowing  how  much  we 
should  have  use  for  it. 

I  have  thought  it  better,  by  nourishing  the  good  passions 
and  controlling  the  bad,  to  merit  an  inheritance  in  a  state  of 
being  of  which  I  can  know  but  little,  and  to  trust  for  the 
future  to  Him  who  has  been  so  good  for  the  past. 

TO  the  corruptions  of  Christianity  I  am,  indeed,  op- 
posed ;  but  not  to  the  genuine  precepts  of  Jesus  him- 
self.    I  am  a  Christian  in  the  only  sense  in  which 
he  wished  any  one  to  be ;  sincerely  attached  to  his  doctrines 
in  preference  to  all  others ;  ascribing  to  himself  every  human 
excellence;  and  believing  he  never  claimed  any 
10.  379.     other.     ...     It  behooves  every  man  who  val- 
ues liberty  of  conscience  for  himself,  to  resist  in- 
vasions of  it  in  the  case  of  others;  or  their  case  may,  by 
change  of  circumstances,  become  his  own. 

AS  to  myself,  my  religious  reading  has  long  been  con- 
fined to  the  moral  branch  of  religion,  which  is  the 
same  in  all  religions,  while  in  that  branch  which  con- 
sists of  dogmas,  all  differ,  all  have  a  different  set. 
12.  237. 

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MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

OF  all  the  systems  of  morality,  ancient  or  modern, 
which  have  come  under  my  observation,  none  appear 
to  me  so  pure  as  that  of  Jesus.    He  who  follows  this 
steadily  need  not,  I  think,  be  uneasy,  although  he  cannot 
comprehend  the  subtleties  and  mysteries  erected  on  his  doc- 
trines by  those  who,  calling  themselves  his  special 
13.  377.     followers  and   favorites  would  make  him  come 
into  the  world  to  lay  snares  for  all  understand- 
ings but  theirs.     ...     in  all  essential  points  you  and  I 
are  of  the  same  religion  and  I  am  too  old  to  go  into  inquiries 
and  changes  of  the  unessential. 

MY  principle  is  to  do  whatever  is  right,  and  leave 
consequences    to    him    who    has    the    disposal  of 
them. 
13- 


IN  extracting  the  pure  principles  which  (Jesus)  taught, 
we  should  have  to  strip  off  the  artificial  vestments  in 
which  they  have  been  muffled  by  priests,  who  have  trav- 
estied theni  into  various  forms,  as  instruments  of  riches  and 
power  to  themselves     .     .     .     there  will  be  found  remaining 
the  most  sublime  and  benevolent  code  of  morals 
J3-  389.     which  has  ever  been  offered  to  man. 

THE  doctrines  which  flowed  from  the  lips  of  Jesus 
himself  are  within  the  comprehension  of  a  child;  but 
thousands  of  volumes  have  not  yet  explained  the 
Platonisms  engrafted  on  them. 
14.  149. 


D 


ISPUTE  as  long  as  we  will  on  religious  tenets,  our 
reason  at  last  must  ultimately  decide,  as  it  is  the 
only  oracle  which  God  has  given  us  to  determine 


77 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

what  really  comes  from  him,  and  the  phantasms  of  a  dis- 
ordered or  deluded  imagination.  When  He  means  to  make 
personal  revelation,  He  always  carries  conviction 
14.  197.  of  its  authenticity,  to  the  reason,  He  has  be- 
stowed as  the  Umpire  of  truth.  You  believe  you 
have  been  favored  with  such  a  special  communication.  Your 
reason  not  mine,  is  to  judge  of  this;  and  if  it  shall  be  His 
pleasure  to  favor  me  with  a  like  admonition,  I  shall  obey  it 
with  the  same  fidelity  with  which  I  would  obey  His 
known  will  in  all  cases.  Hitherto  I  have  been  under  the  guid- 
ance of  that  portion  of  reason  which  He  has  thought  proper 
to  deal  out  to  me.  I  have  followed  it  faithfully  in  all  im- 
portant cases,  to  such  a  degree  at  least  as  leaves  me  without 
uneasiness ;  and  if  on  minor  occasions  I  have  erred  from  its 
dictates,  I  have  trust  in  Him  who  made  us  what  we  are, 
and  know  it  was  not  His  plan  to  make  us  always  unerring. 
He  has  formed  us  moral  agents.  Not  that  in  the  perfection 
of  His  state,  He  can  feel  pain  or  pleasure  at  anything  we  do ; 
He  is  far  above  our  power,  but  that  we  may  promote  the 
happiness  of  those  with  whom  he  has  placed  us  in  society, 
by  acting  honestly  towards  all,  benevolently  to  those  who  fall 
within  our  way,  respecting  sacredly  their  rights,  bodily  and 
mental  and  cherishing  especially  their  freedom  of  conscience 
as  we  value  our  own. 

I  must  ever  believe  that  religion  substantially  good  which 
produces  an  honest  life,  and  we  have  been  authorized  by  one 
whom  you  and  I  equally  respect,  to  judge  of  the  tree  by  its 
fruit.  Our  particular  principles  of  religion  are  a  subject  of 
accountability  to  our  God  alone.  I  enquire  after  no  man's, 
and  trouble  none  with  mine  nor  is  it  given  to  us  in  this  life 
to  know  whether  yours  or  mine,  our  friends  or  our  foes,  are 
exactly  right.  Nay  we  have  heard  it  said  there  is  not  a 
Quaker  or  a  Baptist,  a  Presbyterian  or  an  Episcopalian,  a 
Catholic  or  a  Protestant  in  heaven;  that  on  entering  that 

78 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

gate,  we  leave  those  badges  of  schism  behind,  and  find  cur- 
selves  united  in  those  principles  only  in  which  God  has  united 
us  all.  Let  us  not  be  uneasy  then  about  the  different  roads 
we  may  pursue,  as  believing  them  the  shortest,  to  that  our 
last  abode  but  following  the  guidance  of  a  good  conscience 
let  us  be  happy  in  the  hope  that  by  these  different  paths  we 
shall  all  meet  in  the  end. 

I  NEVER  told  my  own  religion,  nor  scrutinized  that  of 
another.     I  never  attempted  to  make  a  convert,  nor 
wished  to  change  another's  creed.    I  have  ever  judged 
of  anothers  religion  by  their  lives     .  _  .     .     for  it  is  from  our 
lives,  and  not  from  our  words,  that  our  religion  must  be 
read.    By  the  same  test  the  world  must  judge  me. 
15.  60. 

I  HOLD    (without  appeal  to  revelation)   that  when  we 
take  a  view  of  the  universe,  in  its  parts,  general  or  par- 
ticular, it  is  impossible  for  the  human  mind  not  to  per- 
ceive and  feel  a  conviction  of  design,  consummate  skill,  and 
indefinite  power  in  every  atom  of  its  composition.     The 
movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  so  exactly  held 
15.  426.     in  their  course  by  the  balance  of  centrifugal  and 
centripetal  forces  the  structure  of  the  Earth  it- 
self, with  its  distribution  of  lands,  waters  and  atmosphere; 
animal  and  vegetable  bodies,  examined  in  all  their  minutest 
particles ;  insects,  mere  atoms  of  life,  yet  as  perfectly  organ- 
ized as  man  or  mammoth ;  the  mineral  substances,  their  gen- 
eration and  uses,  it  is  impossible,  I  say,  for  the  human  mind 
not  to  believe,  that  there  is  in  all  this,  design,  cause  and 
effect,  up  to  an  ultimate  cause,  a  Fabricator  of  all  things 
from  matter  and  motion,  their  Preserver  and  Regulator, 
while  permitted  to  exist  in  their  present  forms,  and  their 
regeneration  into  new  and  other  forms.    We  see,  too,  evident 


79 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

proofs  of  the  necessity  of  a  superintending  power,  to  maintain 
the  universe  in  its  course  and  order.  Stars,  well  known,  have 
disappeared,  new  ones  have  come  into  view ;  comets  in  their 
incalculable  courses,  may  run  foul  of  suns  and  planets,  and 
require  renovation  under  other  laws ;  certain  races  of  animals 
have  become  extinct ;  and  were  there  no  restoring  power,  all 
existence  might  extinguish  successively,  one  by  one,  until 
all  should  be  reduced  to  a  simple  chaos.  So  irresistible  are 
these  evidences  of  an  Intelligent,  and  powerful  Agent,  that, 
of  the  infinite  numbers  of  men  who  have  existed  through  all 
time,  they  have  believed,  in  the  proportion  of  a  million  at 
least  to  unit,  in  the  hypothesis  of  an  eternal  pre-existence  of 
a  Creator,  rather  than  in  that  of  a  pre-existent  Universe. 
Surely  this  unanimous  sentiment  renders  this  more  probable. 


80 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER   V 
EDUCATIONAL  VIEWS 

LET  what  will  be  said  or  done,  preserve  your  sang- 
froid immovably  and  to  every  obstacle,  oppose  pa- 
tience, perseverance  and  soothing  language. 
8.  316. 

HE  study  of  the  law  is  useful  in  a  variety  of  points 
of  view.  It  qualifies  a  man  to  be  useful  to  himself, 
to  his  neighbors  and  to  the  public.  It  is  the  most 

certain  stepping  stone  in  a  political  line. 

8.  17. 

WE  owed  it  to  do,  not  what  would  perish  with  our- 
selves, but  what  would  remain,  be  respected, 
and  preserved  through  other  ages.  And  we  fondly 
hope  that  the  instruction  which  may  flow  from  this  institu- 
tion (University  of  Virginia),  kindly  cherished,  by  advanc- 
ing the  minds  of  our  youth  with  the  growing  sci- 
19.  407.     ence  of  the  times,  and  elevating  the  views  of  our 
citizens  generally  to  the  practice  of  the  social  du- 
ties, and  the  functions  of  self-government,  may  insure  to  our 
country  the  reputation,  the  safety  and  prosperity,  and  all  the 
other  blessings  which  experience  proves  to  result  from  the 
cultivation  and  improvement  of  the  human  mind.     .     .     . 
No  nation  is  permitted  to  live  in  ignorance  with  impunity. 

IT  was  not  however  to  be  understood  that  instruction  in 
religious  opinion  and  duties  was  meant  to  be  precluded 
by  the  public  authorities,  as  indifferent  to  the  interests  of 
society.    On  the  contrary,  the  relations  which  exist  between 

81 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

man  and  his  Maker,  and  the  duties  resulting  from  those  re- 
lations, are  the  most  interesting  and  important  to 

19.  414.  every  human  being,  and  the  most  incumbent  on 
his  study  and  investigation. 

WHILE  yoir-endeavor,  by  a  good  store  of  learning 
to  prepare  yourself  to  become  an  useful  and  dis- 
tinguished member  of  your  country,  you  must 
remember  that  this  can  never  be  without  uniting  merit  with 
your  learning.  Honesty,  disinterestedness  and  good  nature 

are  indispensable  to  procure  the  esteem  and  con- 
19.  241.  fidence  of  those  with  whom  we  live,  and  on  whose 

esteem  our  happiness  depends.  Never  suffer  a 
thought  to  be  harbored  in  your  mind  which  you  would  not 
avow  openly.  When  tempted  to  do  anything  in  secret  ask 
yourself  if  you  would  do  it  in  public.  If  you  would  not,  be 
sure  it  is  wrong.  In  little  disputes  with  your  companions,  give 
way  rather  than  insist  on  trifles.  For  their  love  and  the  ap- 
probation of  others  will  be  worth  more  to  you  than  the  trifle 
in  dispute.  Above  all  things  and  at  all  times  practice  your- 
self in  good  humor.  Whenever  you  feel  a  warmth  of  temper 
rising,  check  it  at  once,  and  suppress  it,  recollecting  it  will 
make  you  unhappy  within  yourself  and  disliked  by  others. 
Nothing  gives  one  person  so  much  advantage  over  another 
as  to  remain  always  cool  and  unruffled  under  all  circum- 
stances. Think  of  these  things,  practice  them,  and  you  will 
be  rewarded  by  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  world. 

is  an  axiom  in  my  mind  that  our  liberty  can  never  be 
safe  but  in  the  hands  of  the  people  themselves,  and  that, 
too,  of  the  people  with  a  certain  degree  of  instruction. 

This  it  is  the  business  of  the  State  to  effect  and  on  a  general 

plan. 

19.  24. 

82 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

WE  thought  a  systematic  plan  of  education  should 
be  proposed,  and  I  was  requested  to  undertake 
it.     I  accordingly  prepared  three  bills     .     .     . 
proposing  three  distinct  grades  of  education  reaching  all 
classes,     ist.  Elementary  schools,  for  all  children  generally, 
nch  and  poor.     2nd.  Colleges,  for  a  middle  de- 
i.  71.       gree  of  instrucfi<3n7~~ealculated  for  the  common 
purposes  of  life,  and  such  as  would  be  desirable 
for  all  who  were  in  easy  circumstances.    And,  3rd,  an  ulti- 
mate grade  for  teaching  the  sciences  generally,  and  in  their 
highest  degree. 

The  first  bill  proposed  to  lay  off  every  county  into  wards, 
of  a  proper  size  and  population  for  a  school,  in  which  read- 
ing, writing,  and  common  arithmetic  should  be  taught;  and 
that  the  whole  State  should  be  divided  into  .  .  .  dis- 
tricts, in  each  of  which  should  be  a  school  for  classical  learn- 
ing, grammar,  geography,  and  the  higher  branches  of  nu- 
merical arithmetic.  The  Second  bill  proposed  to  amend  the 
Constitution  of  William  &  Mary  College,  to  enlarge  its 
sphere  of  science,  and  to  make  it  in  fact  a  University.  The 
Third  was  for  the  establishment  of  a  library. 


/  •  ^HE  Objects  of  Primary  Education:     i.  To  give  to 
every  citizen  the  information  he  needs  for  the  trans- 
•^       action  of  his  own  business. 

2.  To  enable  him  to  calculate  for  himself,  and  to  express 
and  preserve  his  ideas,  his  contracts  and  accounts  in  writing. 

3.  To  improve  by  reading  his  morals  and  faculties. 

4.  To  understand  his  duties  to  his  neighbors  and  country, 
and  to  discharge  with  competence  the  functions  confided  to 
him  by  either. 

5.  To  know  his  rights ;  to  exercise  with  order  and  justice 
those  he  retains;  to  choose  with  discretion  the  fiduciary  of 
those  he  delegates  and  to  notice  their  conduct  with  diligence, 
with  candor  and  judgment. 

2.12. 

83 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

6.  And  in  general,  to  observe  with  intelligence  and  faith- 
fulness all  the  social  relations  under  which  he  may  be  placed. 

!~T  TISTORY,  by  apprising  (men)  of  the  past,  will  enable 
hH    them  to  judge  of  the  future ;  it  will  avail  them  of  the 
*•  •*"  experience  of  other  times  and  other  nations ;  it  will 
ualify  them  as  judges  of  the  actions  and  designs  of  men; 
:  will  enable  them  to  know  ambition  under  every  disguise 
it  may  assume ;  and  knowing  it,  to  defeat  its  views. 
i.  207.     In  every  government  on  earth_Js_some  trace  of 
human  weakness,  some  germ  of  corruption  amrde- 
generacv.  which  cunning  will  discover,  and  wickedness  in- 
sensibly gggjk  cultivate  and  improve.    Every  governmentjde- 
"generates  when  entrusted  to  the  rulers  of  the  people  alone. 
The  people  themselves  therefore  are  its  only  safe  deposi- 
tories.   And  to  render  even  them  safe  their  minds  must  be 
Jmproved  to  aj:ertain~degre£ Tbis  1'nHppH  k?  nnt  nil  tjiatjs 
necessary^  though  it  be  essentially  necessary.     .     .     .     The 
influence  over  government  must  be  shared  among  all  the 
people.    If  every  individual  which  composes  their  mass  par- 
ticipates of  the  ultimate  authority,  the  government  will  be 
safe;  because  the  corrupting  (of)  the  whole  mass  will  exceed 
any  private  sources  of  wealth;  and  public  ones  cannot  be 
provided  but  by  levies  on  the  people.     ...     It  has  been 
thought  that  corruption  is  restrained  by  confining  the  right 
of  suffrage  to  a  few  of  the  wealthier  people ;  but  it  would  be 
more  effectually  restrained  by  an  extension  of  that  right  to 
such  members  as  would  bid  defiance  to  the  means  of  corrup- 
tion. 

I  SAT  down  with  a  design  of  executing  your  request  to 
form  a  catalogue  of  books.     ...     A  view  of  the  sec- 
ond column  in  the  catalogue  would,  I  presume,  extort 
a  smile  from  the  face  of  gravity.    Peace  to  its  wisdom !  Let 

84 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

me  not  awaken  it.  A  little  attention  however  to  the  nature 
of  the  human  mind  evinces  that  the  entertainments 
4.  237.  of  fiction  are  useful  as  well  as  pleasant.  That 
they  are  pleasant  when  well  written  every  person 
feels  who  reads.  But  wherein  is  its  utility,  asks  the  reverend 
sage,  big  with  the  notion  that  nothing  can  be  useful  but  the 
learned  lumber  of  Greek  and  Roman  reading  with  which  his 
head  is  stored?  I  answer,  everything  is  useful  which  con- 
tributes to  fix  the  principles  and  practices  of  virtue.  When 
any  original  act  of  charity  or  of  gratitude,  for  instance,  is 
presented  either  to  our  sight  or  imagination,  we  are  deeply 
impressed  with  its  beauty  and  feel  a  strong  desire  in  our- 
selves of  doing  charitable  and  grateful  acts  also.  On  the  con- 
trary, when  we  see  or  read  of  an  atrocious  deed,  we  are  dis- 
gusted with  its  deformity,  and  conceive  an  abhorrence  of 
vice.  Now  every  emotion  of  this  kind  is  an  exercise  of  our 
virtuous  dispositions,  and  dispositions  of  the  mind,  like  the 
limbs  of  the  body,  acquire  strength  by  exercise.  But  exer- 
cise produces  habit  .  .  .  we  never  think  whether  the 
story  we  read  be  truth  or  fiction.  If  the  painting  be  lively, 
and  a  tolerable  picture  of  nature,  we  are  thrown  into  a  rev- 
ery,  from  which  if  we  awaken,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  writer. 
.  .  .  The  field  of  imagination  is  thus  laid  open  to  our 
use,  and  lessons  may  be  formed  to  illustrate  and  carry  home 
to  the  heart  every  moral  rule  of  life.  Thus  a  lively  and  last- 
ing sense  of  filial  duty  is  more  effectually  impressed  upon 
the  mind  of  a  son  or  daughter  by  reading  King  Lear,  than 
by  all  the  dry  volumes  of  ethics,  and  divinity  that  ever  were 
written.  This  is  my  idea  of  well  written  Romance,  of  Trag- 
edy, Comedy,  and  Epic  Poetry. 

DEAR  PETER—.     .     .    Time  now  begins  to  be  pre- 
cious to  you.  Every  day  you  lose  will  retard  a  day 
your  entrance  on  the  public  stage  whereon  you  may 
begin  to  be  useful  to  yourself.    However,  the  way  to  repair 

85 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  loss  is  to  improve  the  future  time.  I  trust  that  with  your 
dispositions,  even  the  acquisition  of  science  is  a 
5.  82.  pleasing  employment.  I  can  assure  you,  that  the 
possession  of  it  is,  what  (next  to  an  honest  heart) 
will  above  all  things  render  you  dear  to  your  friends,  and 
give  you  fame  and  promotion  in  your  own  country.  .  .  . 
When  your  mind  shall  be  well  improved  with  science,  noth- 
ing will  be  necessary  to  place  you  in  the  highest  points  of 
view,  but  to  pursue  the  interests  of  your  country,  the  inter- 
ests of  your  friends,  and  your  own  interests,  too,  with  the 
purest  integrity,  the  most  chaste  honor.  The  defect  of  these 
virtues  can  never  be  made  up  by  all  the  acquirements  of 
body  and  mind.  Make  these  then  your  first  object.  Give  up 
money,  give  up  fame,  give  up  science,  give  the  earth  itself 
and  all  it  contains,  rather  than  do  an  immoral  act.  And 
never  suppose,  that  in  any  possible  situation,  or  under  any 
circumstances,  it  is  best  for  you  to  do  a  dishonorable  thing, 
however  slightly  so  it  may  appear  to  you.  Whenever  you 
are  to  do  a  thing,  though  it  can  never  be  known  to  any  but 
yourself,  ask  yourself  how  you  would  act  were  all  the  world 
looking  at  you,  and  act  accordingly.  Encourage  all  your  vir- 
tuous dispositions,  and  exercise  them  whenever  an  oppor- 
tunity arises ;  being  assured  they  will  gain  strength  by  exer- 
cise, as  a  limb  of  the  body  does,  and  that  exercise  will  make 
them  habitual.  From  the  practise  of  the  purest  virtue,  you 
may  be  assured  you  will  derive  the  most  sublime  comforts 
in  every  moment  of  life,  and  in  the  moment  of  death.  If 
ever  you  find  yourself  environed  with  difficulties,  and  per- 
plexing circumstances,  out  of  which  you  are  at  a  loss  how  to 
extricate  yourself,  do  what  is  right,  and  be  assured  that  that 
will  extricate  you  out  of  the  labyrinth,  in  the  easiest  manner 
possible.  The  knot  which  you  thought  a  Gordian  one  will 
untie  itself  before  you.  Nothing  is  so  mistaken  a  suppo- 
sition that  a  person  is  to  extricate  himself  from  a  difficulty, 


86 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

by  intrigue,  by  chicanery,  by  dissimulation,  by  trimming,  by 
an  untruth,  by  an  injustice.  This  increases  the  difficulties 
tenfold;  and  those,  who  pursue  these  methods,  get  them- 
selves so  involved  at  length,  that  they  can  turn  no  way  but 
their  infamy  becomes  more  exposed.  It  is  of  great  impor- 
tance to  set  a  resolution,  not  be  shaken,  never  to  tell  an  un- 
truth. There  is  no  vice  so  mean,  so  pitiful,  so  contemptible ; 
and  he  who  permits  himself  to  tell  a  lie  once,  finds  it  much 
easier  to  do  it  a  second  and  third  time,  till  at  length  it  be- 
comes habitual;  he  tells  lies  without  attending  to  it,  and 
truths  without  the  world  believing  him.  This  falsehood  of 
tongue  leads  to  that  of  the  heart,  and  in  time  depraves  all 
its  good  dispositions.  An  honest  heart  being  the  first  bless- 
ing, a  knowing  head  is  the  second  ...  in  order  to  in- 
sure a  certain  progress  in  reading,  consider  what  hours  you 
have  free  from  the  school  and  the  exercises  of  the  school. 
Give  about  two  of  them  every  day  to  exercise;  for  health 
must  not  be  sacrificed  to  learning.  _j\  strong  body  makes  the 
mind  strong.  As  to  the  species  of  exercise  I  advise  the  gun. 
While  this  gives  a  moderate  exercise  to  the  body,  it  gives 
boldness,  enterprise  and  independence  to  the  mind.  Games 
played  with  the  ball,  and  others  of  that  nature,  are  too 
violent  for  the  body  and  stamp  no  character  on  the  mind. 
Let  your  gun,  therefore,  be  the  constant  companion  of  your 
walks.  Never  think  of  taking  your  book  with  you.  The 
object  of  walking  is  to  relax  the  mind.  You  should  there- 
fore not  permit  yourself  even  to  think  while  you  walk ;  but 
divert  yourself  by  the  objects  surrounding  you.  Walking  is 
the  best  possible  exercise.  Habituate  yourself  to  walk  very 
far.  The  Europeans  value  themselves  on  having  subdued 
the  horse  to  the  uses  of  man ;  but  I  doubt  whether  we  have 
not  lost  more  than  we  have  gained,  by  the  use  of  this  ani- 
mal. No  one  has  occasioned  so  much  the  degeneracy  of  the 
human  body.  An  Indian  goes  on  foot  nearly  as  far  in  a  day, 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

for  a  long  journey,  as  an  enfeebled  white  does  on  his  horse, 
and  he  will  tire  the  best  horses.  There  is  no  habit  you  will 
value  so  much  as  that  of  walking  far  without  fatigue.  I 
would  advise  you  to  take  your  exercise  in  the  afternoon :  not 
because  it  is  the  best  time  for  exercise,  for  certainly  it  is 
not ;  but  because  it  is  the  best  time  you  can  spare  from  your 
studies ;  and  habit  will  soon  reconcile  it  to  your  health,  and 
render  it  nearly  as  useful  to  you  as  if  you  gave  to  that  the 
more  precious  hours  of  the  day.  A  little  walk  of  half  an 
hour,  in  the  morning,  when  you  first  arise,  is  advisable  also. 
It  shakes  off  sleep,  and  produces  other  good  effects  in  the 
animal  economy.  Rise  at  a  fixed  and  early  hour  also.  Sit- 
ting up  late  at  night  is  injurious  to  the  health,  and  not  use- 
ful to  the  mind.  Having  ascribed  proper  hours  to  exercise, 
divide  what  remain  (I  mean  of  your  vacant  hours)  into 
three  portions.  Give  the  principal  to  history,  the  other  two, 
which  should  be  shorter,  to  Philosophy  and  poetry.  .  .  . 
The  plan  I  have  proposed  for  you  is  adapted  to  your  present 
situation  only.  When  that  is  changed  I  will  propose  a  cor- 
responding change  of  plan.  ...  I  have  nothing  further 
to  add  for  the  present,  but  husband  well  your  time,  cherish 
your  instructors,  strive  to  make  everybody  your  friend.  .  .  . 
(Letter  to  Peter  Carr,  1785.) 

WITH  respect  to  what  are  termed  polite  manners, 
without  sacrificing  too  much  the   sincerity  of 
language,  I  would  wish  my  countrymen  to  adopt 
just  so  much  of  European  politeness,  as  to  be  ready  to  make 
all  those  little  sacrifices  of  self,  which  really  render  Euro- 
pean manners  amiable,  and  relieve  society  from 
5.  150.     the  disagreeable  scenes  to  which  rudeness  often 
subjects  it.    Here,  it  seems  that  a  man  might  pass 
a  life  without  encountering  a  single  rudeness.    In  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  table  they  are  far  before  us,  because,  with  good 

88 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

taste  they  unite  temperance.  They  do  not  terminate  the 
most  sociable  meals  by  transforming  themselves  into  brutes. 
I  have  never  yet  seen  a  man  drunk  in  France,  even  among 
the  lowest  of  the  people. 

WHY  send  an  American  youth  to  Europe  for  edu- 
cation? If  he  goes  to  England  he  learns  drink- 
ing, horse-racing  and  boxing.  These  are  the 
peculiarities  of  English  education.  The  following  circum- 
stances are  common  to  education  in  that,  and  the  other  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  He  acquires  a  fondness  for  Eu- 
5.  185.  ropean  luxury  and  dissipation,  and  a  contempt  for 
the  simplicity  of  his  own  country ;  he  is  fascinated 
with  the  privileges  of  the  European  aristocrats,  and  sees, 
with  abhorrence,  the  lovely  equality  which  the  poor  enjoy 
with  the  rich  in  his  own  country;  he  contracts  a  partiality 
for  aristocracy  ...  he  forms  foreign  friendships 
which  will  never  be  useful  to  him,  and  loses  the  seasons  of 
life  for  forming,  in  his  own  country,  those  friendships, 
which  of  all  others,  are  the  most  faithful  and  permanent; 
he  is  led  by  the  strongest  of  all  human  passions,  into  a  spirit 
of  female  intrigue,  destructive  of  his  own  and  others  happi- 
ness, or  a  passion  for  whores,  destructive  of  his  health,  and 
in  both  cases,  learns  to  consider  fidelity  to  the  marriage  bed 
as  an  ungentlemanly  practice,  and  inconsistent  with  happi- 
ness ;  he  recollects  the  voluptuary  dress  and  arts  of  the  Euro- 
pean women,  and  pities  and  despises  the  chaste  affections 
and  simplicity  of  those  of  his  own  country;  he  retains 
through  life  a  fond  recollection,  and  a  hankering  after  those 
places,  which  were  the  scenes  of  his  first  pleasures  and  his 
first  connections ;  he  returns  to  his  own  country  a  foreigner ; 
unacquainted  with  the  practices  of  domestic  economy,  neces- 
sary to  preserve  him  from  ruin,  speaking  and  writing  his 
native  tongue  as  a  foreigner,  and  therefore  unqualified  to 

89 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

obtain  those  distinctions,  which  eloquence  of  the  pen  and 
tongue  insures  in  a  free  country.  For  I  would  observe  to 
you,  that  what  is  called  style  in  writing  or  speaking  is 
formed  very  early  in  life,  while  the  imagination  is  warm  and 
impressions  are  permanent.  ...  It  appears  to  me,  then, 
that  an  American  coming  to  Europe  for  education,  loses  in 
his  knowledge,  in  his  morals,  in  his  health,  in  his  habits,  and 
in  his  happiness.  I  had  entertained  only  doubts  on  this  head 
before  I  came  to  Europe ;  what  I  see  and  hear,  since  I  came 
here,  proves  more  than  I  had  even  suspected.  Cast  your 
eye  over  America:  who  are  the  men  of  most  learning,  of 
most  eloquence,  most  beloved  by  their  countrymen  and 
most  trusted  and  promoted  by  them?  They  are  those  who 
have  been  educated  among  them,  and  whose  manners,  mor- 
als, and  habits,  are  perfectly  homogeneous  with  those  of  the 
country. 

OUR  act  for  Freedom  of  Religion  is  extremely  ap- 
plauded.    I  think  it  will  produce  considerable  good 
even  in  these  countries,  where  ignorance,  supersti- 
tion, poverty,  and  oppression  of  body  and  mind,  in  every 
form,  are  so  firmly  settled  on  the  mass  of  the  people,  that 
their  redemption  from  them  can  never  be  hoped. 
5.  394.     If  all  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  were  to  set  them- 
selves to  work,  to  emancipate  the  minds  of  their 
subjects  from  their  present  ignorance  and  prejudices,  and 
that  as  zealously  as  they  now  do  to  the  contrary,  a  thousand 
years  would  not  place  them  on  that  high  ground,  on  which 
our  common  people  are  now  setting  out.     Ours  could  not 
have  been  so  fairly  placed  under  the  control  of  the  common- 
sense  of  the  people,  had  they  not  been  separated  from  their 
parent  stock,  and  kept  from  contamination,  either  from  them 
or  the  other  people  of  the  old  world,  by  the  intervention  of 
so  wide  an  ocean.    To  know  the  worth  of  this,  one  must  see 


90 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  want  of  it  here  (Paris).  I  think  by  far  the  most  impor- 
tant bill  in  our  whole  code,  is  that  for  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  the  people.  No  other  sure  foundation  can 
be  devised,  for  the  preservation  of  freedom  and  happiness. 
If  anybody  thinks  that  kings,  nobles,  priests  are  good  con- 
servators of  the  public  happiness,  send  him  here.  It  is  the 
best  school  in  the  Universe  to  cure  him  of  his  folly.  He 
will  see  here,  with  his  own  eyes,  that  these  descriptions  of 
men  are  an  abandoned  confederacy  against  the  happiness  of 
the  mass  of  the  people. 

The  omnipotence  of  their  effect  cannot  be  better  proved 
than  in  this  country  particularly,  where,  notwithstanding  the 
finest  soil  upon  earth,  the  finest  climate  under  heaven,  and 
a  people  of  the  most  benevolent,  the  most  gay  and  amiable 
character  of  which  the  human  form  is  susceptible;  where 
such  a  people,  I  say,  surrounded  by  so  many  blessings  of 
nature,  are  loaded  with  misery,  by  kings,  nobles  and  priests, 
md  by  them  alone.  Preach,  my  dear  Sir,  a  crusade  against 
Ignorance;  establish  and  improve  the  law  for  educating  the 
/common  people.  Let  our  countrymen  know,  that  the  people 
alone  can  protect  us  against  these  evils,  and  that  the  tax 
which  will  be  paid  for  this  purpose,  is  not  more  than  the 
thousandth  part  of  what  will  be  paid  to  Kings,  priests  and 
nobles,  who  will  rise  up  among  us  if  we  leave  the  People 
in  ignorance. 

I  HAVE  proposed  to  you,  to  carry  on  the  study  of  law 
with  that  of  politics  and  history.    Every  political  meas- 
ure will  forever  have  an  intimate  connection  with  the 
laws  of  the  land ;  and  he,  who  knows  nothing  of  these,  will 
always  be  perplexed  and  often  foiled  by  adversaries  having 
the  advantage  of  that  knowledge  over  him.     Be- 
6.  167.     sides,  it  is  a  source  of  infinite  comfort  to  reflect, 
that  under  every  chance  of  fortune,  we  have  a 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

resource  in  ourselves  from  which  we  may  be  able  to  derive 
an  honorable  subsistence.  I  would  therefore  not  only  pro- 
pose the  study,  but  the  practice  of  the  law  for  some  time,  to 
possess  yourself  of  the  habit  of  public  speaking.  .  .  . 
With  your  talents  and  industry,  with  science,  and  that  stead- 
fast honesty  which  eternally  pursues  right,  regardless  of  con- 
sequences, you  may  promise  yourself  everything,  but  health, 
without  which  there  is  no  happiness.  An  attention  to  health 
then,  should  take  place  of  every  other  object.  The  time 
necessary  to  secure  this  by  active  exercises  should  be  de- 
voted to  it,  in  preference  to  every  other  pursuit.  I  know 
the  difficulty  with  which  a  studious  man  tears  himself  from 
his  studies,  at  any  given  moment  of  the  day.  But  his  hap- 
piness and  that  of  his  family  depend  upon  it.  The  most 
uninformed  mind  with  a  healthy  body,  is  happier  than  the 
wisest  valetudinarian. 

MORAL  Philosophy.     I  think  it  lost  time  to  attend 
lectures  on  this  branch.     He  who  made  us  would 
have  been  a  pitiful  bungler,  if  he  had  made  the 
rules  of  our  moral  conduct  a  matter  of  science.     For  one 
man  of  science,  there  are  thousands  who  are  not.     What 
has  become  of  them?     Man  was   destined   for 
10.  178.     society.      His    morality,    therefore,    was    to    be 
formed  for  this  object.    He  was  endowed  with  a 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  merely  relative  to  this.  This  sense 
is  as  much  a  part  of  his  nature,  as  the  sense  of  hearing,  see- 
ing, feeling;     .     .     .     the  moral  sense,  or  conscience,  is  as 
much  a  part  of  man  as  his  leg  or  arm.     It  is  given  to  all 
human   beings   in   a  greater   or  less   degree.      It   may   be 
strengthened  by  exercise,  as  may  any  particular  limb  of  the 
body.     This  sense  is  submitted,  indeed,  in  some  degree,  to 
the  guidance  of  reason;  but  it  is  a  small  stock  which  is  re- 
quired for  this ;  even  a  less  one  than  what  we  call  common 


92 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

sense.  State  a  moral  case  to  a  ploughman  and  a  professor. 
The  former  will  decide  it  as  well,  and  often  better  than  the 
latter,  because  he  has  not  been  led  astray  by  artificial  rules. 
.  .  .  In  fine  I  repeat,  you  must  lay  aside  all  prejudice 
on  both  sides,  and  neither  believe  nor  reject  anything,  be- 
cause any  other  persons  or  descriptions  of  persons,  have  re- 
jected or  believed  it.  Your  own  reason  is  the  only  oracle 
given  you  by  heaven,  and  you  are  answerable  for,  not  the 
Tightness,  but  uprightness  of  the  decision 


TRAVELLING.     This   makes   men  wiser,   but   less 
happy.    When  men  of  sober  age  travel,  they  gather 
knowledge  which  they  may  apply  usefully  for  their 
country;  but  they  are  subject  ever  after  to  recollections 
mixed  with  regret;  their  affections  are  weakened  by  being 
6.131.       extended  over  more  objects;  and  they  learn  new 

6.261.  habits  which  cannot  be  gratified  when  they  return 

6.262.  home.     .     .     .     (To  Young  men)     The  glare  of 
pomp  and  pleasure  is  analogous  to  the  motion  of  the  blood ; 
it  absorbs  all  their  affection  and  attention,  they  are  torn 
from  it  as  from  the  only  good  in  this  world  and  return  to 
their  home  as  to  a  place  of  exile  and  condemnation.     .     .     . 
Be  good,  be  learned,  and  be  industrious,  and  you  will  not 
want  the  aid  of  travelling,  to  render  you  precious  to  your 
country,  dear  to  your  friends,  happy  within  yourself.    I  re- 
peat my  advice,  to  take  a  great  deal  of  exercise  and  on  foot. 
Health  is  the  first  requisite  after  morality.     .     .     . 


I  DO  most  anxiously  wish  to  see  the  highest  degrees  of 
education  given  to  the  highest  degrees  of  genius,  and  to 
all  degrees  of  it,  so  much  as  may  enable  them  to  read 
and  understand  what  is  going  on  in  the  world,  and  to  keep 


93 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

their  part  of  it  going  on  right :  for  nothing  can  keep  it  right 

but  their  own  vigilant  and  distrustful  superintend- 

9.  306.     ence.    I  do  not  believe     .     .     .     with  the     ... 

Montaignes,  that  fourteen  out  of  fifteen  men  are 

rogues :  I  believe  a  great  abatement  from  that  proportion  may 

be  made  in  favor  of  general  honesty.     But  I  have  always 

found  that  rogues  will  be  uppermost,  and  I  do  not  know 

that  the  proportion  is  too  strong  for  the  higher  orders,  and 

for  those  who  rising  above  the     ...     multitude,  always 

contrive  to  nestle  themselves  into  the  places  of  power  and 

profit.    These  rogues  set  out  with  stealing  the  peoples  good 

opinion,  and  then  steal  from  them  the  right  of  withdrawing 

it,  by  contriving  laws  and  associations  against  the  power  of 

the  people  themselves. 

I  AM  not  a  friend  to  placing  young  men  in  populous  cities, 
because  they  acquire  habits  and  partialities  which  do 
not  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  their  after  life, 
ii.  242. 

NEVER  fear  the  want  of  business.    A  man  who  quali- 
fies himself  well  for  his  calling,  never  fails  of  em- 
ployment in  it.    The  foundation  you  will  have  laid 
in  legal  reading,  will  enable  you  to  take  a  higher  ground 
than  most  of  your  competitors,  and  even  ignorant  men  can 
see  who  it  is  that  is  not  one  of  themselves.     Go 
8.  385.     on  then  with  courage,  and  you  will  be  sure  of 
success. 

COKE  LITTLETON  was  the  Universal  law  book  of 
students  and  a  sounder  whig  never  wrote,  nor  of  pro- 
founder  learning  in  the  orthodox  doctrines  of  the 
British  Constitution,  or  in  what  was  called  British  Liberties. 

94 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Our  lawyers  were  then  all  whigs.    But  when  his  black  letter 
text  and  uncouth  but  cunning  learning  got  out  of 
12.  4.         fashion,  and  the  honeyed  Mansfieldism  of  Black- 
stone  became  the  students  hornbook,  from  that 
moment  that  profession  (the  nursery  of  our  Congress)  be- 
gan to  slide  into  toryism,  and  nearly  all  the  Young  brood  of 
lawyers  are  now  of  that  line.    They  suppose  themselves  to 
be  whigs,  because  they  no  longer  know  what  Whigism  or 
Republicanism  means. 

A  DETERMINATION  never  to  do  what  is  wrong, 
prudence  and  good  humor,  will  go  far  towards  se- 
curing to  you  the  estimation  of  the  world.  When  I 
recollect  that  at  fourteen  years  of  age  the  whole  care  and 
direction  of  myself  was  thrown  on  myself  entirely,  without 
a  relation  or  friend  qualified  to  advise  or  guide 
12.  197.  me,  and  recollect  the  various  sorts  of  bad  com- 
pany with  which  I  associated  from  time  to  time, 
I  am  astonished  I  did  not  turn  off  with  some  of  them,  and 
become  as  worthless  to  society  as  they  were.  I  had  the  good 
fortune  to  become  acquainted  very  early  with  some  char- 
acters of  very  high  standing,  and  to  feel  the  incessant  wish 
that  I  could  ever  become  what  they  were.  Under  tempta- 
tions and  difficulties,  I  would  ask  myself  what  would  Dr. 
Small,  Mr.  Wythe,  Peyton  Randolph  do  in  this  situation? 
What  course  in  it  will  insure  me  their  approbation?  I  am 
sure  that  this  mode  of  deciding  on  my  conduct  tended  more 
to  correctness  than  any  reasoning  powers  I  possessed.  Know- 
ing the  even  and  dignified  line  they  pursued  I  could  never 
doubt  for  a  moment  which  of  two  courses  would  be  in  char- 
acter for  them.  Whereas  seeking  the  same  object  through 
a  process  of  moral  reasoning,  and  with  the  jaundiced  eye  of 
youth,  I  should  often  have  erred.  From  the  circumstances 
of  my  position,  I  was  often  thrown  into  the  society  of  horse 


95 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

racers,  card  players,  fox  hunters,  scientific  and  professional 
men,  and  of  dignified  men;  and  many  a  time  have  I  asked 
myself,  in  the  enthusiastic  moment  of  the  death  of  a  fox, 
the  victory  of  a  favorite  horse,  the  issue  of  a  question  elo- 
quently argued  at  the  bar,  or  in  the  great  council  of  the 
nation,  well,  which  of  these  kinds  of  reputation  would  you 
prefer?  that  of  a  horse  jockey?  a  fox  hunter?  an  orator?  or 
the  honest  advocate  of  my  countries  rights?  Be  assured, 
my  dear  Jefferson,  that  these  little  returns  into  ourselves, 
this  self-catechising  habit,  is  not  trifling  nor  useless,  but  leads 
to  the  prudent  selection  and  steady  pursuit  of  what  is  right. 

I  have  mentioned  good  humor  as  one  of  the  preservatives 
of  our  peace  and  tranquillity.  It  is  among  the  most  effectual, 
and  its  effect  is  so  well  imitated  and  aided,  artificially,  by 
politeness,  that  this  also  becomes  an  acquisition  of  first  rate 
value.  In  truth,  politeness  is  artificial  good  humor,  it  cov- 
ers the  natural  want  of  it,  and  ends  by  rendering  habitual  a 
substitute  nearly  equivalent  to  the  real  virtue.  It  is  the  prac- 
tice of  sacrificing  to  those  whom  we  meet  in  society,  all  the 
little  conveniences  and  preferences  which  will  gratify  them, 
and  deprive  us  of  nothing  worth  a  moment's  consideration ; 
it  is  the  giving  a  pleasing  and  flattering  turn  to  our  expres- 
sions, which  will  conciliate  others,  and  make  them  pleased 
with  us  as  well  as  themselves.  How  cheap  a  price  for  the 
good  will  of  another !  When  this  in  return  for  a  rude  thing 
said  by  another,  it  brings  him  to  his  senses,  it  mortifies  and 
corrects  him  in  the  most  salutary  way,  and  places  him  at  the 
feet  of  your  good  nature,  in  the  eyes  of  the  company. 

But  in  stating  the  prudential  rules  for  our  government  in 
society,  I  must  not  omit  the  important  one  of  never  entering 
into  dispute  or  argument  with  another.  I  never  saw  an  in- 
stance of  one  of  two  disputants  convincing  the  other  by 
argument.  I  have  seen  many,  on  their  getting  warm,  be- 
coming rude  and  shooting  one  another.  Conviction  is  the 


96 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

effect  of  our  own  dispassionate  reasoning,  either  in  solitude 
or  weighing  with  ourselves  dispassionately  what  we  hear 
from  others,  standing  uncommitted  in  argument  ourselves. 
It  was  one  of  the  rules  which  above  all  others  made  Dr. 
Franklin  the  most  amiable  of  all  men  in  society,  "never  to 
contradict  anybody."  If  he  was  urged  to  announce  an  opin- 
ion he  did  it  rather  by  asking  questions,  as  if  for  informa- 
tion, or  by  suggesting  doubts.  When  I  hear  another  express 
an  opinion  which  is  not  mine,  I  say  to  myself,  he  has  a  right 
to  his  opinion,  as  I  to  mine;  why  should  I  question  it?  His 
error  does  me  no  injury,  and  shall  I  become  a  Don  Quixote, 
to  bring  all  men  by  force  of  argument  to  one  opinion?  If  a 
fact  be  misstated,  it  is  probable  he  is  gratified  by  a  belief  of 
it,  and  I  have  no  right  to  deprive  him  of  the  gratification. 
If  he  wants  information  he  will  ask  for  it,  and  then  I  will 
give  it  in  measured  terms;  but  if  he  still  believe  his  own 
story,  and  shows  a  desire  to  dispute  the  fact  with  me,  I  hear 
him  and  say  nothing.  It  is  his  affair,  not  mine,  if  he  prefers 
error. 

There  are  two  classes  of  disputants  most  frequently  to 
be  met  with  among  us.  The  first  is  of  young  students,  just 
entered  the  threshold  of  science,  with  a  first  view  of  its  out- 
lines, not  yet  filled  up  with  the  details  and  modifications 
which  a  further  progress  would  bring  to  their  knowledge. 
The  other  consists  in  the  ill-tempered  and  rude  men  in  so- 
ciety, who  have  taken  up  a  passion  for  politics.  Good  hu- 
mor and  politeness  never  introduce  into  mixed  society,  a 
question  on  which  they  foresee  there  will  be  a  difference  of 
opinion.  From  both  of  these  classes  of  disputants,  my  dear 
Jefferson,  keep  aloof,  as  you  would  from  the  infected  sub- 
jects of  yellow  fever  or  pestilence.  Consider  yourself  when 
with  them,  as  among  the  patients  of  Bedlam,  needing  medi- 
cal more  than  moral  counsel.  Be  a  listener  only,  keep  within 
yourself,  and  endeavor  to  establish  with  yourself  the  habit 


97 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

of  silence,  especially  on  politics.  In  the  fevered  state  of  our 
country,  no  good  can  ever  result  from  any  attempt  to  set  one 
of  these  zealots  to  rights,  either  in  fact  or  principle.  They 
are  determined  upon  the  facts  they  will  believe,  and  the 
•opinions  on  which  they  will  act.  Get  by  them,  therefore,  as 
you  would  by  an  angry  bull;  it  is  not  for  a  man  of  sense 
to  dispute  the  road  with  such  an  animal.  You  will  be  more 
exposed  than  others  .  .  .  because  of  the  relation  in 
which  you  stand  to  me. 

My  character  is  not  within  their  power.  It  is  in  the  hands 
of  my  fellow  citizens  at  large,  and  will  be  consigned  to  honor 
or  infamy  by  the  verdict  of  the  republican  mass  of  our 
country,  according  to  what  themselves  have  seen,  not  what 
their  enemies  and  mine  will  have  said. 

I  ALWAYS  hear  with  pleasure  of  institutions   for  the 
promotion  of  knowledge  among  my  countrymen.     The 
people  of  every  country  are  the  only  safe  guardians  of 
their  own  rights,  and  are  the  only  instruments  which  can 
be  used  for  their  destruction.     And  certainly  they  would 
never  consent  to  be  so  used  were  they  not  de- 
12.  282.     ceived.    To  avoid  this,  they  should  be  instructed 
to  a  certain  degree.     I  have  often  thought  that 
nothing  would  do  more  extensive  good  at  small  expense 
than  the  establishment  of  a  small  circulating  library  in  every 
county,  to  consist  of  a  few  well  chosen  books,  to  be  lent  to 
the  people  of  the  country,  under  such  regulations  as  would 
secure  their  safe  return  in  due  time. 

THE  boys  of  the  rising  generation  are  to  be  the  men 
of  the  next,  and  the  sole  guardians  of  the  principles 
we  deliver  over  to  them.     .     .     .     Truth  and  reason 
are  eternal.    They  have  prevailed.    And  they  will  eternally 

98  '     N 

•v 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


prevail,  however  in  times  and  places  they  may  be  overbourne 
for  a  while  by  violence,  military,  civil,  or  ecclesi- 

12.  360.  astical.  The  preservation  of  the  holy  fire  is  con- 
fided to  us  by  the  world,  and  the  sparks  which 

emanate  from  it  will  ever  serve  to  kindle  it  in  other  quarters 

of  the  globe.    Numinibus  secundis. 

AT  sixty-seven  years  of  age,  I  talk  of  ploughs  and 
harrows,  of  seeding  and  harvesting,  with  my  neigh- 
bors, and  of  politics,  too,  if  they  choose,  with  as 
little  reserve  as  the  rest  of  my  fellow  citizens,  and  feel  at 
length,  the  blessing  of  being  free  to  say  what  I  think  and 
do  what  I  please,  without  being  responsible  to  any 
12.  368.     mortal. 

A  part  of  my  occupation,  and  by  no  means  the 
least  pleasing,  is  the  direction  of  the  studies  of  such  young 
men  as  ask  it.  They  place  themselves  in  the  neighboring  vil- 
lage, and  have  the  use  of  my  library  and  counsel,  and  make 
a  part  of  my  study.  In  advising  the  course  of  their  reading, 
I  endeavor  to  keep  their  attention  fixed  on  the  main  objects 
of  all  science,  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  man,  so  that 
coming  to  bear  a  share  in  the  councils  and  government  of 
their  country,  they  will  keep  ever  in  view  the  sole  objects 
of  all  legitimate  government. 

WHEN  sobered  by  experience,  I  hope  our  succes- 
sors will  turn  their  attention  to  the  advantages 
of  education.    I  mean  of  education  on  the  broad 
scale,  and  not  that  of  our  petty  academies,  as  they  call  them- 
selves, which  are  starting  up  in  every  neighborhood  and 
where  one  or  two  men,  possessing  Latin  and  some- 
14.  150.     times  Greek,  a  knowledge  of  the  Globes,  and  the 
first  six  books    of    Euclid,    imagine    and  com- 
municate this  as  the  sum  of  science   (knowledge).     They 
commit  their  pupils  to  the  theatre  of  the  world,  with  just 


99 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

taste  enough  of  learning  to  be  alienated  from  Industrious 
pursuits,  and  not  enough  to  do  service  in  the  ranks  of  sci- 
ence. We  have  some  exceptions  indeed  .  .  .  but  the 
facts  I  present  are  general  truths. 

AND  if  the  Wise  be  the  happy  man,  as  these  sages 
say,  he  must  be  virtuous,  too;  for,  without  virtue, 
happiness  cannot  be.    This  then  is  the  true  scope  of 
all  academical  emulation. 
14.  405. 

ENLIGHTEN  the  people  generally,  and  tyranny  and 
oppression  of  the  body  and  mind  will  vanish  like 
evil  spirits  at  the  dawn  of  day.  /Although  I  do  not, 
like  some  enthusiasts,  believe  that  the  human  condition  will 
ever  advance  to  such  a  state  of  perfection  as  that  there  shall 
no  longer  be  pain  or  vice  in  the  world,  yet  I  be- 
14.  491.    lieve  it  susceptible   of  much   improvement,   and 
most  of  all  in  matters  of  government  and  religion; 
and  that  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  tl.e  People  is  to 
be  the  instrument  by  which  it  is  to  be  effected. 

IN  a  republican  nation,  whose  citizens  are  to  be  led  by 
reason  and  persuasion,  and  not  by  force,  the  art  of  rea- 
soning becomes  of  first  importance.     .     .     .     Amplifica- 
tion is  the  vice  of  the  modern  orator.     It  is  an  insult  to  an 
assembly  of  reasonable  men,  disgusting  and  revolting  instead 
of  persuading.     Speeches  measured  by  the  hour 

1 6.  30.       die  with  the  hour. 
|. 

t 

ALL  eyes  are  opened,  or  opening  to  the  rights  of  man. 
The  general  spread  of  the  light  of  science  has  al- 
ready laid  open  to  every  view  the  palpable  truth, 
that  the  mass  of  mankind  has  not  been  born  with  saddles 


IOO 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

on  their  backs,  nor  a  favored  few  booted  and  spurred,  ready 
to  ride  them  legitimately,  by  the  grace  of  God. 
1 6.  182. 

AVOID  the  subject  of  politics  in  society,  and  generally 
shun  disputation  on  every  subject,  which  never  did 
convince  an  antagonist,  and  too  often  alienates  a 
friend,  besides  being  always  an  uneasy  thing  to  a  good  tem- 
pered society. 
18.  253. 

OUR  University  goes  on  well.     As  yet  it  has  been  a 
model  of  order  and  good  behavior,  having  never  yet 
had  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  a  single  act  of  au- 
thority.    We  studiously  avoid  too  much  government.     We 
treat  students  as  men  and  gentlemen,  under  the  guidance 
mainly  of  their  own  discretion.    They  so  consider 
1 8.  341.     themselves,  and  make  it  their  pride  to  acquire  that 
character  for  their  institution. 


101 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  VI. 
SUMMARY  VIEW  OF  THE  RIGHTS  OF  BRITISH  AMERICA 

REMIND  him  (George  the  Third)  that  our  ancestors, 
before  their  emigration  to  America,  were  the  free 
inhabitants  of  the  British  dominions  in  Europe,  and 
possessed  a  right,  which  nature  has  given  to  all  men,  of 
departing  from  the  Country  in  which  chance,  not  choice,  has 
placed  them,  of  going  in  quest  of  new  habitations, 
i.  185.  and  of  there  establishing  new  societies,  under 
such  laws  and  regulations  as  to  them  shall  seem 
most  likely  to  promote  public  happiness.  .  .  .  America 
was  conquered,  and  her  settlements  made  and  firmly  estab- 
lished, at  the  expense  of  individuals  and  not  of  the  British 
Public.  Their  own  blood  was  spilt  in  acquiring  lands  for 
their  settlement,  their  own  fortunes  expended  in  making  that 
settlement  effectual.  For  themselves  they  fought,  for  them- 
selves they  conquered,  and  for  themselves  alone  they  have 
right  to  hold.  .  .  .  That  settlement  having  been  thus  ef- 
fected in  the  Wilds  of  America,  the  emigrants  thought  prop- 
er to  adopt  that  system  of  laws  to  which  they  had  been  ac- 
customed in  the  Mother  Country,  and  to  continue  their 
Union  with  her,  by  submitting  themselves  to  the  same  com- 
mon sovereign,  who  was  thereby  made  the  central  link  con- 
necting the  several  parts  of  the  Empire  thus  newly  mul- 
tiplied. .  .  .  History  has  informed  us  that  Bodies  of 
men  as  well  as  Individuals,  are  susceptable  of  tyranny  .  .  . 
the  true  ground  on  which  we  declare  these  acts  void,  is, 
that  the  British  Parliament  has  no  authority  over  us.  ... 
Scarcely  have  our  minds  been  able  to  emerge  from  the  as- 
tonishment into  which  one  stroke  of  Parliamentary  thunder 
has  involved  us,  before  another  more  heavy  and  more  alarm- 
ing is  fallen  on  us.  Single  acts  of  tyranny  may  be  ascribed 


1 02 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

to  the  accidental  opinion  of  the  day ;  but  a  series  of  oppres- 
sions, begun  at  a  distinguished  period,  and  pursued  unalter- 
ably through  every  change  of  ministers,  too  plainly  prove  a 
deliberate,  systematical  plan  of  reducing  us  to  slavery.  .  .  . 
One  free  and  independent  Legislature,  hereby  (by  the  act 
of  parliament  suspending  the  Legislature  of  New  York) 
takes  upon  itself  to  suspend  the  powers  of  another,  free  and 
Independent  as  itself.  .  .  .  Not  only  the  principles  of 
common  sense,  but  the  common  feelings  of  human  nature 
must  be  surrendered  up,  before  His  Majesty's  subjects  here, 
can  be  persuaded  to  believe,  that  they  hold  their  existence 
at  the  will  of  a  British  Parliament.  .  .  .  Should  these 
governments  be  dissolved,  their  property  annihilated,  and 
their  People  reduced  to  a  State  of  Nature,  at  the  imperious 
breath  of  a  body  of  men,  whom  they  never  saw,  in  whom 
they  never  confided,  and  over  whom  they  have  no  powers  of 
punishment  or  removal,  let  their  crimes  against  the  Ameri- 
can Public  be  ever  so  great?  Can  any  one  reason  be  as- 
signed, why  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  electors  in  the 
Island  of  Great  Britain,  should  give  law  to  four  millions  in 
the  States  of  America,  every  individual  of  whom  is  equal  to 
every  individual  of  them  in  virtue,  in  understanding,  and  in 
bodily  strength  ?  Were  this  to  be  admitted,  instead  of  being 
a  free  people,  as  we  have  hitherto  supposed  and  mean  to 
continue  ourselves,  we  should  suddenly  be  found  the  slaves, 
not  of  one  but  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  tyrants ; 
distinguished,  too,  from  all  others  by  this  singular  circum- 
stance, that  they  are  removed  from  the  reach  of  fear,  the 
only  restraining  motive  which  may  hold  the  hand  of  a  tyrant. 
.  .  .  There  are  extraordinary  situations  which  require 
extraordinary  interposition.  An  exasperated  people  who 
feel  that  they  possess  power,  are  not  easily  restrained  within 
limits  strictly  regular.  A  number  of  them  assembled  in  the 
town  of  Boston  threw  the  tea  into  the  Ocean,  and  dispersed 


103 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

without  doing  any  other  act  of  violence.  ...  On  the 
partial  representations  of  a  few  ministerial  dependents 
.  .  .  without  calling  for  a  party  accused,  without  asking 
a  proof,  without  attempting  a  distinction  between  the  guilty 
and  the  innocent,  the  whole  of  that  ancient  and  wealthy 
town  is  in  a  moment  reduced  from  opulence  to  beggary 
.  .  .  not  the  hundredth  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
town,  had  been  concerned  in  the  act  complained  of;  many 
of  them  were  in  Great  Britain,  and  in  other  parts  beyond  the 
sea;  yet  all  were  involved  in  one  indiscriminate  ruin,  by  a 
new  executive  power,  unheard  of  till  then,  that  of  a  British 
Parliament.  .  .  .  This  is  administering  justice  with  a 
heavy  hand  indeed !  By  the  act  for  the  suppression  of  riots 
and  tumults  in  the  town  of  Boston  passed  also  in  the  last 
session  of  Parliament,  a  murder  committed  there,  is,  if  the 
Governor  pleases,  to  be  tried  in  the  Court  of  Kings  Bench, 
in  the  Island  of  Great  Britain,  by  a  jury  of  Middlesex 
.  .  .  and  the  wretched  criminal,  if  he  happen  to  have 
offended  on  the  American  side,  stripped  of  his  privilege  of 
trial  by  peers  of  his  vicinage,  removed  from  the  place  where 
alone  evidence  could  be  obtained,  without  money,  without 
counsel,  without  friends,  without  exculpatory  proof,  is  tried 
before  judges  predetermined  to  condemn.  The  cowards  who 
would  suffer  a  countryman  to  be  torn  from  the  bowels  of 
their  society,  in  order  to  be  thus  offered  a  sacrifice  to  Parlia- 
mentary tyranny,  would  merit  that  everlasting  infamy,  now 
fixed  on  the  authors  of  the  act !  .  .  .  When  the  Repre- 
sentative body  have  lost  the  confidence  of  their  constituents, 
when  they  have  notoriously  made  sale  of  their  most  valuable 
rights,  when  they  have  assumed  to  themselves  powers  which 
the  people  never  put  into  their  hands,  then,  indeed,  their 
continuing  in  office  becomes  dangerous  to  the  State.  .  .  . 
From  the  Nature  of  things,  every  society  must,  at  all  times, 
possess  within  itself  the  sovereign  powers  of  legislation.  The 


104 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

feelings  of  human  nature  revolt  against  the  supposition  of  a 
State  so  situated,  as  that  it  may  not,  in  any  emergency, 
provide  against  dangers  which,  perhaps,  threaten  immediate 
ruin.  .  .  .  While  those  bodies  are  in  existence  to  whom 
the  people  have  delegated  the  powers  of  legislation,  they 
alone  possess  and  may  exercise,  those  powers.  But  when 
they  are  dissolved  .  .  .  the  power  reverts  to  the  people, 
who  may  use  it  to  unlimited  extent,  either  assembling  in 
person,  sending  deputies,  or  in  any  way  they  think  proper. 

Can  his  Majesty  thus  put  down  all  law  under  his  feet? 
Can  he  erect  a  power  superior  to  that  which  erected  him- 
self ?  He  has  done  it  indeed  by  force  but  let  him  remember 
that  force  cannot  give  right. 

Let  those  flatter  who  fear :  it  is  not  an  American  art. 

To  give  praise  where  it  is  not  due  might  be  well  for  the 
venal,  but  would  ill  beseem  those  who  are  asserting  the 
rights  of  human  nature.  They  know  and  will  therefore,  say, 
that  Kings  are  the  servants,  not  the  proprietors  of  the  Peo- 
ple. .  .  .  The  great  principles  of  right  and  wrong  are 
legible  to  every  reader;  to  pursue  them,  requires  not  the 
aid  of  many  counsellors. 

The  whole  art  of  government  consists  in  the  art  of  being 
honest.  Only  aim  to  do  your  duty  and  mankind  will  give 
you  credit  where  you  fail.  No  longer  persevere  in  sacrificing 
the  rights  of  one  part  of  the  Empire  to  the  inordinate  desires 
of  another;  but  deal  out  to  all  equal  and  impartial  right. 
Let  no  act  be  passed  by  one  legislature  which  may  infringe 
on  the  rights  and  liberties  of  another.  .  .  .  It  is  neither 
our  wish  nor  our  interest  to  separate  from  her  (England). 
We  are  willing  on  our  part  to  sacrifice  everything  which 
reason  can  ask,  to  the  restoration  of  that  tranquility  for 
which  all  must  wish.  .  .  .  The  God  who  gave  us  life, 
gave  us  liberty  at  the  same  time :  the  hand  of  force  may  de- 
stroy, but  cannot  disjoin  them.  .  .  .  This,  Sire,  is  our 
last,  our  determined  resolution. 

105 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  VII. 
BASIC  PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT 

WHEN  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes 
necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political 
bands  which  have  connected  them  with  another, 
and  to  assume  among  the  powers  of  the  Earth  the  separate 
and  equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  Na- 
ture's God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  for  the 
19.  278.     opinions  of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  de- 
clare the  causes  which  impel  them  to  the  separa- 
tion. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  that  all  men  are 
created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness;  that  to  secure  these  rights 
governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed ;  that  whenever  any 
form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  insti- 
tute new  government,  laying  its  foundations  on  such  prin- 
ciples, and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them 
shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness. 
Prudence  indeed  will  dictate  that  governments  long  estab- 
lished shall  not  be  changed  for  light  and  transient  causes; 
and  accordingly  all  experience  hath  shown  that  mankind  are 
more  disposed  to  suffer  while  evils  are  sufferable  than  to 
right  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are 
accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpa- 
tions, pursuing  invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a  design 
to  reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right, 
it  is  their  duty  to  throw  off  such  government,  and  to  provide 
new  guards  for  their  future  security. 

106 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  Stamp  act  was  passed  in  February,  1765.  What 
powers  the  Parliament  might  rightfully  exercise  over 
us,  and  whether  any,  had  never  been  declared  either 
by  them  or  us.  They  had  very  early  taken  the  gigantic  step 
of  passing  the  Navigation  act.  The  colonies  remonstrated 
violently  against  it,  and  one  of  them,  Virginia, 
17.  125.  when  she  capitulated  to  the  Commonwealth  of 
England,  expressly  stipulated  for  a  free  trade. 
This  was  as  little  regarded  as  the  original  right,  restored  by 
it,  had  been.  .  .  .  When  they  (parliament)  proposed  to 
consider  us  merely  as  objects  of  taxation,  all  the  States  took 
alarm.  .  .  .  Sound  heads  saw  in  the  first  moment,  that 
he  who  could  put  down  the  loom,  could  stop  the  spinning 
wheel,  and  he  who  could  stop  the  spinning  wheel  could  tie 
the  hands  which  turned  it.  ...  Who  were  to  be 
judges  whether  duties  were  imposed  with  a  view  to  burden 
and  suppress  a  branch  of  manufacture,  or  to  raise  a  reve- 
nue? If  either  party  exclusively  of  the  other,  it  was  plain 
where  that  would  end.  If  both  parties,  it  was  plain  where 
that  would  end  also.  They  saw,  therefore,  no  sure  clue  to 
lead  them  out  of  their  difficulties  but  reason  and  right.  They 
dared  to  follow  them  assured  that  they  (reason  and  right) 
alone  could  lead  them  to  defensible  ground.  The  first  ele- 
ments of  reason  showed  that  the  members  of  Parliament 
could  have  no  power  which  the  people  of  the  several  coun- 
ties had  not.  That  these  had  naturally  a  power  over  their 
own  farms,  and  collectively  over  all  England.  That  if  they 
had  any  power  over  countries  out  of  England,  it  must  be 
founded  on  compact  or  force.  No  compact  could  be  shown. 
.  .  .  (133)  This  is  a  luminous  idea,  and  worthy  of  be- 
ing a  little  more  developed.  It  places  the  question  between 
England  and  America  in  the  simplest  form  possible.  No 
Englishman  can  pretend  that  a  right  to  participate  in  gov- 
ernment can  be  derived  from  any  other  source  than  n  per- 


107 


sonal  right,  or  a  right  of  property.  The  conclusion  is  in- 
evitable that  he,  who  had  neither  his  person  nor  property  in 
America,  could  not  rightfully  assume  a  participation  in  its 
government. 


C 


ONQUEST  is  not  in  our  principles ;  it  is  inconsistent 
with  our  government. 
17.  396. 


PRIMA  facie,  it  accorded  well  with  two  favorite  ideas 
of  mine,  of  leaving  commerce  free,  and  never  keeping 
an  unnecessary  soldier. 
17-  330. 

THE  only  orthodox  object  of  the  institution  of  govern- 
ment is  to  secure  the  greatest  degree  of  happiness 
possible  to  the  general  mass  of  those  associated  un- 
der it.    The  events  which  this  work  proposes  to  embrace  will 
establish  the  fact  that  unless  the  mass  retains  sufficient  con- 
trol over  those  intrusted  with  the  powers  of  gov- 
13.  135.     ernment,  these  will  be  perverted  to  their  own  op- 
pression, and  to  the  perpetuation  of  wealth  and 
power  in  the  individuals  and  their  families  selected  for  the 
trust. 

I  HAVE  indeed  two  great  measures  at   heart,   without 
which  no  republic  can  maintain  itself  in  strength. 
i.  That  of  general  education,  to  enable  every  man  to 
judge  for  himself  what  will  secure  or  endanger  his  freedom. 
2.  To  divide  every  county  into  hundreds,  and  of  such  size 
that  all  the  children  of  each  will  be  within  reach 
12.  393.     of  a  central  school  in  it.     But  this  division  looks 
to  many  other   fundamental   provisions.     .     .     . 
These  little   republics   would   be   the  main  strength  of  the 

1 08 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

great  one.  We  owe  to  them  the  vigor  given  to  our  revo- 
lution in  its  commencement  in  the  Eastern  States, 
and  by  them  the  Eastern  States  were  enabled  to  repeal  the 
embargo  in  opposition  to  the  Middle,  Southern  and  Western 
States,  and  their  large  and  lubberly  division  into  counties 
which  can  never  be  assembled.  General  orders  are  given 
out  from  the  centre  to  the  foreman  of  every  hundred,  as  to 
the  sergeants  of  an  army,  and  the  whole  nation  is  thrown 
into  energetic  action,  in  the  same  direction  in  one  instant,  as 
one  man,  and  becomes  absolutely  irresistible.  Could  I  once 
see  this  I  should  consider  it  as  the  dawn  of  the  Salvation  of 
the  republic,  and  say  with  old  Simion,  "Nunc  Dimittis,  Do- 
mine."  But  our  children  will  be  as  wise  as  we  are  and  will 
establish  in  the  fullness  of  time  those  things  not  yet  ripe  for 
establishment.  So  be  it. 

I  OWN  I  am  not  a  friend  to  a  very  energetic  government. 
It  is  always  oppressive.    It  places  the  governors  indeed 
more  at  their  ease,  at  the  expense  of  the  people.    The 
late  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  has  given  more  alarm  than  I 
think  it  should  have  done.     .     .     .     Nor  will  any  degree  of 
power  in  the  hands  of  government  prevent  insur- 
6.  391.     rections.     In  England,  where  the  hand  of  power 
is  heavier  than  with  us,  there  are  seldom  less  than 
half  a  dozen  years  without  an  insurrection.     In  Turkey, 
where  the  sole  nod  of  the  despot  is  death,  insurrections  are 
the  events  of  every  day.     .     .     .     And  say  finally  whether 
peace  is  best  preserved  by  giving  energy  to  the  government, 
or  information  to  the  people.    This  last  is  the  most  certain, 
and  the  most  legitimate  engine  of  government.    Educate  and 
inform  the  mass  of  the  people.    Enable  them  to  see  that  it  is 
to  their  interest  to  preserve  peace  and  order,  and  they  will 
preserve  them.    And  it  requires  no  very  high  degree  of  edu- 
cation to  convince  them  of  this.    They  are  the  only  sure  re- 


109 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

liance  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberty.  After  all,  it  is 
my  principle  that  the  will  of  the  majority  should  prevail 
.  .  .  this  reliance  cannot  deceive  us  as  long  as  we  remain 
virtuous ;  and  I  think  we  shall  be  so,  as  long  as  agriculture 
is  our  main  object,  which  will  be  the  case,  while  there  re- 
main vacant  lands  in  any  part  of  America.  When  we  get 
piled  upon  one  another  in  large  cities,  as  in  Europe,  we  shall 
become  corrupt  as  in  Europe,  and  go  to  eating  one  another 
as  they  do  there. 


WHERE  does  this  anarchy  exist?  Where  did  it 
ever  exist  except  in  the  single  instance  of  Massa- 
chusetts? And  can  history  produce  an  instance 
of  rebellion  so  honorably  conducted?  I  say  nothing  of  its 
motives.  They  were  founded  in  ignorance,  not  wickedness. 

God  forbid  we  should  ever  be  twenty  years  with- 
6.  371.  out  such  a  rebellion.  The  people  cannot  be  all, 

and  always  well  informed.  That  which  is  wrong 
will  be  discontented,  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the 
facts  they  misconceive.  If  they  remain  quiet  under  such 
misconceptions,  it  is  a  lethargy,  the  forerunner  of  death  to 
the  public  liberty.  We  have  had  thirteen  States  independent 
for  eleven  years.  There  has  been  one  rebellion.  That  comes 
to  one  rebellion  in  a  century.  What  country  before  ever 
existed  a  century  and  a  half  without  a  rebellion  ?  And  what 
country  can  preserve  its  liberties,  if  its  rulers  are  not  warned 
from  time  to  time,  that  this  people  preserve  the  spirit  of 
resistance  ?  Let  them  take  arms.  The  remedy  is  to  set  them 
right  as  to  facts,  pardon  and  pacify  them.  What  signify  a 
few  lives  lost  in  a  century  or  two  ?  The  tree  of  liberty  must 
be  refreshed  from  time  to  time,  with  the  blood  of  patriots 
and  tyrants.  It  is  its  natural  manure. 


no 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THIS  uneasiness  has  produced  acts  entirely  unjusti- 
fiable, but  I  hope  they  will  provoke  no  severities 
from  their  governments.  A  consciousness  of  those 
in  power  that  their  administration  of  the  public  affairs  has 
been  honest,  may,  perhaps,  produce  too  great  a  degree  of 

indignation;  and  those  characters,  wherein  fear 
6.  64.  predominates  over  hope,  may  apprehend  too  much 

from  these  instances  of  irregularity.  They  may 
conclude  too  hastily,  that  nature  has  formed  man  insus- 
ceptible of  any  other  government  than  that  of  force,  a  con- 
clusion not  founded  in  truth  nor  experience.  Societies  exist 
under  three  forms,  sufficiently  distinguishable,  i.  Without 
government,  as  among  our  Indians.  2.  Under  governments 
wherein  the  will  of  every  one  has  a  just  influence;  as  is  the 
case  in  England,  in  a  slight  degree,  and  in  our  States,  in  a 
great  one.  3.  Under  Governments  of  force ;  as  is  the  case  in 
all  other  monarchies,  and  in  most  of  the  other  republics. 
To  have  an  idea  of  the  curse  of  existence  under  these  last, 
they  must  be  seen.  It  is  a  government  of  wolves  over  sheep. 
It  is  a  problem  not  clear  in  my  mind,  that  the  first  condition 
is  not  the  best.  But  I  believe  it  to  be  inconsistent  with  any 
great  degree  of  population.  The  second  state  has  a  great  deal 
of  good  in  it.  The  mass  of  mankind  under  that,  enjoys  a  pre- 
cious degree  of  liberty  and  happiness.  It  has  its  evils,  too ; 
the  principal  of  which  is  the  turbulence  to  which  it  is  sub- 
ject. But  weigh  this  against  the  oppressions  of  monarchy, 
and  it  becomes  nothing.  .  .  .  Even  this  evil  is  productive 
of  good.  It  prevents  the  degeneracy  of  government,  and 
nourishes  a  general  attention  to  the  public  affairs.  I  hold  it 
that  a  little  rebellion,  now  and  then,  is  a  good  thing,  and  as 
necessary  in  the  political  world  as  the  storms  in  the  physical. 
Unsuccessful  rebellions,  indeed,  generally  establish  the  en- 
croachments on  the  rights  of  the  people,  which  have  pro- 
duced them.  An  observation  of  this  truth  should  render 


ill 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

honest  republican  governors  so  mild  in  their  punishment  of 
rebellions,  as  not  to  discourage  them  too  much.  It  is  a 
medicine  necessary  to  the  health  of  government. 

THEY  (Congress)  will  restrain  within  due  bounds  a 
jurisdiction  exercised  by  others,  much  more  rigor- 
ously than  if  exercised  by  themselves. 
6.  131. 

TO  make  us  one  nation  as  to  foreign  concerns,  and 
keep  us  distinct  in  domestic  ones,  gives  the  outline 
of  the  proper  division  of  powers  between  the  general 
and  particular  governments. 
6.  8. 


W 
I 


ITHOUT  society,  and  a  society  to  our  taste,  men 
are  never  contented. 
6.  15- 


"Y"  CAN  never  fear  that  things  will  go  wrong  where  com- 
mon sense  has  fair  play. 
6.  19. 

I  AM  persuaded  myself  that  the  good  sense  of  the  people 
will  always  be  found  to  be  the  best  army.    They  may 
be  led  astray  for  a  moment,  but  will  soon  correct  them- 
selves.   The  people  are  the  only  censors  of  their  governors ; 
and  even  their  errors  will  tend  to  keep  these  to  the  true 
principles  of  their  institution.     To  punish  these 
6.  55.       errors  too  severely  would  be  to  suppress  the  only 
safeguard  of  the  public  liberty.    The  way  to  pre- 
vent these  irregular  interpositions  of  the  people  is  to  give 


112 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

them  full  information  of  their  affairs  through  the  channel  of 
the  public  papers,  and  to  contrive  that  those  papers  should 
penetrate  the  whole  mass  of  the  people.  The  basis  of  our 
governments  being  the  opinion  of  the  people,  the  very  first 
object  should  be  to  keep  that  right;  and  were  it  left  to  me 
to  decide  whether  we  should  have  a  government  without 
newspapers,  or  newspapers  without  a  government,  I  should 
not  hesitate  a  moment  to  prefer  the  latter.  But  I  should 
mean  that  every  man  was  to  receive  those  papers,  and  be 
capable  of  reading  them. 

I  am  convinced  that  those  societies  (as  the  Indians)  which 
live  without  government,  enjoy  in  their  general  mass  a  great- 
er degree  of  happiness  than  those  who  live  under  the  Euro- 
pean governments.  Among  the  former,  public  opinion  is  in 
the  place  of  the  law,  and  restrains  morals  as  powerfully  as 
laws  ever  did  anywhere.  Among  the  latter,  under  pretence 
of  governing,  they  have  divided  their  nations  into  two  class- 
es, wolves  and  sheep.  I  do  not  exaggerate.  This  is  a  true 
picture  of  Europe.  Cherish  therefore  the  spirit  of  our  peo- 
ple, and  keep  alive  their  attention.  Do  not  be  too  severe 
upon  their  errors,  but  reclaim  them  by  enlightening  them. 
If  once  they  become  inattentive  to  the  public  affairs,  you  and 
I,  and  Congress  and  Assemblies,  Judges  and  Governors,  shall 
all  become  wolves.  It  seems  to  be  the  law  of  our  genera] 
nature,  in  spite  of  individual  exceptions;  and  experience 
declares  that  man  is  the  only  animal  which  devours  his  own 
kind,  for  I  can  apply  no  milder  term  to  the  governments  of 
EUROPE,  and  the  general  prey  of  the  rich  on  the  poor. 

WERE  armies  to  be  raised  whenever  a  speck  of 
war  is  visible  in  our  horizon,  we  never  should 
have  been  without  them.    Our  resources  would 
have  been  exhausted  on  dangers  which  have  never  happened. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Instead  of  being  reserved  for  what  is  really  to  take  place. 

A  steady,  perhaps  a  quickened  pace,  in  preparations 
3.  425.  for  defence  of  our  seaport  towns  and  waters ;  an 

early  settlement  of  the  most  exposed  and  vulner- 
able parts  of  our  country ;  a  militia  so  organized  that  its  ef- 
fective portions  can  be  called  to  any  portion  of  the  Union, 
or  volunteers  instead  of  them  to  serve  a  sufficient  time,  are 
means  which  may  always  be  ready,  yet  never  preying  upon 
our  resources  until  actually  called  into  use.  They  will  main- 
tain the  public  interests  while  a  more  permanent  force  is  in 
course  of  preparation.  But  much  will  depend  upon  the 
promptitude  with  which  these  means  can  be  brought  into 
activity.  If  war  be  forced  upon  us  in  spite  of  our  long  and 
vain  appeals  to  the  justice  of  nations,  rapid  and  vigorous 
movements  in  its  outset  will  go  far  toward  securing  us  in  its 
course  and  issue,  and  toward  throwing  its  burdens  upon 
those  who  render  necessary  the  resort  from  reason  to  force. 

I  CONSIDER  the  people  who  constitute  a  society  or  na- 
tion as  the  source  of  all  authority  in  that  nation;  as 
free  to  transact  their  common  concerns  by  any  agents 
they  think  proper;  to  change  these  agents  individually,  or 
the  organization  of  them  in  form  or  function  whenever  they 
please;     that    all    the   acts    done     by    these    agents     un- 
der the  authority  of  the  nation,  are  the  acts  of 
3.  227.     the  nation,  are  obligatory  to  them  and  inure  to 
their  use,  and  can  in  no  wise  be"  annulled  or  af- 
fected by  any  change  in  the  form  of  government,  or  of  the 
persons  administering  it,  consequently  the  treaties  between 
the  United  States  and  France  were  not  treaties  between 
the  U.  S.  and  Louis  Capet,  but  between  the  two  nations  of 
America  and  France. 


114 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
GENERAL  VIEWS 

I  PROPOSED,  therefore,  to  adopt  the  Dollar  as  our  unit 
of  account  and  payment,  and  that  its  divisions  and  sub- 
divisions  should  be  in  the  decimal  ratio.     This  was 
adopted     .     .     .     and  is  the  system  that  now  prevails, 
i-  73- 

THE  qualifications  of  self-government  in  society  are 
not  innate.    They  are  the  result  of  habit  and  long 
training,  and  for  these  they  will  require  time  and 
probably  much  suffering. 
16.  22. 


I 


T  is  a  happy  circumstance  in  human  affairs,  that  evils 
which  are  not  cured  in  one  way  will  cure  themselves  in 
some  other. 


I  WILLINGLY  acquiesce  in  the  institutions  of  my  coun- 
try, perfect  or  imperfect;  and  think  it  a  duty  to  leave 
their  modifications  to  those  who  are  to  live  under  them, 
and  are  to  participate  of  the  good  or  evil  they  may  produce. 
The  present  generation  has  the  same  right  of  self-govern- 
ment which  the  past  one  has  exercised  for  itself. 
16.  29.       And  those  in  the  full  vigor  of  body  and  mind  are 
more  able  to  judge  for  themselves  than  those  who 
are  sinking  under  the  wane  of  both. 

I  THINK,  myself,  that  we  have  more  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment than  is  necessary,  too  many  parasites  living  on 
the  labor  of  the  industrious.    I  believe  it  might  be  much 
simplified  to  the  relief  of  those  who  maintain  it. 
1 6.  76. 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THAT  I  should  lay  down  my  charge  at  a  proper  period 
is  as  much  a  duty  as  to  have  borne  it  faithfully.    If 
some  termination  to  the  services  of  the  chief  mag- 
istrate be  not  fixed  by  the  Constitution  or  supplied  by  prac- 
tice, his  office,  nominally  for  years  will,  in  fact,  become  for 
life;  and  history  shows  how  easily  that  degen- 
16.  293.     crates  into  an  inheritance. 

EXCITED  by  wrongs  to  reject  a  foreign  government 
which  directed  our  concerns  according  to  its  own 
interests,  and  not  to  ours,  the  principles  which  jus- 
tified us  were  obvious  to  all  understandings,  they  were  im- 
printed in  the  breast  of  every  human  being ;  and  Providence 
ever  pleases  to  direct  the  issue  of  our  contest  in 
1 6.  317.     favor  of  that  side  where  justice  was. 

A  GOVERNMENT  regulating  itself  by  what  is  wise 
and  just  for  the  many, uninfluenced  by  the  local  and 
selfish  views  of  the  few  who  direct  their  affairs,  has 
not  been  seen,  perhaps,  on  earth.    Or,  if  it  existed,  for  a 
moment,  at  the  birth  of  ours,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  fix  the 
term  of  its  existence. 


G 


OVERNMENTS  are  republican  only  in  proportion 
as  they  embody  the  will  of  the  people,  and  execute 
it-  15-  33- 


I  THANK  you,  Sir,  for  the  copy  of  the  new  constitution 
of  Spain     .     .     .     there  is  one  provision  which  will  im- 
mortalize its  inventors.    It  is  that  which,  after  a  certain 
epoch,   disfranchises  every   citizen   who   cannot   read   and 

116 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

write.  This  is  new,  and  is  the  fruitful  germ  of  the  im- 
provement of  everything  good,  and  the  correction 

14.  130.  of  everything  imperfect  in  the  present  constitution. 
This  will  give  you  an  enlightened  people,  and  an 

energetic  public  opinion  which  will  control  and  enchain  the 

aristocratic  spirit  of  the  government. 

WITHDRAWING  myself  within  the  shell  of  our 
own  State,  I  have  long  contemplated  a  division 
of  it  into  hundreds  or  wards,  as  the  most  funda- 
mental measure  for  securing  good  government,  and  for  in- 
stilling the  principles  and  exercise  of  self-government  into 
every  fibre  of   every   member   of  our   common- 
14.  70.       wealth.     .     .     .     It  is   for  some  of  you  young 
legislators  to  immortalize  yourselves  by  laying  this 
stone  as  the  basis  of  our  political  edifice. 

THERE  are  two  subjects,  indeed,  which  I  shall  claim 
a  right  to  further  as  long  as  I  breathe,  the  public 
education,    and    the    subdivision    of    counties    into 
wards.    I  consider  the  continuance  of  republican  government 
as  absolutely  hanging  on  these  two  hooks. 
14.  84. 

I  SEE  our  safety  in  the  extent  of  our  confederacy,  and  in 
the  probability  that  in  the  proportion  of  that  the  sound 
parts  will  always  be  sufficient  to  crush  local  poisons. 
14.  120. 


T 


HE  fondest  wish  of  my  heart  ever  was,  that  the  sur- 
plus portion  of  these  taxes,  destined  for  the  payment 
of  that  debt,  should  when  that  object  was  accom- 


II! 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

plished,  be  continued  by  annual  or  biennial  enactments,  and 
applied  in  time  of  peace,  to  the  improvement  of  our  country 

by  canals,  roads  and  useful  institutions,  literary 
13.  354.  or  others;  and  in  time  of  war  to  the  maintenance 

of  the  war.  For  authority  to  apply  the  surplus  to 
objects  of  improvement  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
would  have  been  necessary. 


IT  is  a  comfort  that  the  medal  has  two  sides.     I  do  not 
myself  contemplate  human  nature  in  quite  so  sombre  a 
view.    That  there  is  much  vice  and  misery  in  the  world, 
I  know ;  but  more  virtue  and  happiness  I  believe,  at  least  in 
our  part  of  it;  the  latter  being  the  lot  of  those  employed  in 
agriculture  in  a  greater  degree  than  other  callings. 
12.  379.     That  we  are  overdone  with  banking  institutions, 
which  have  banished  the  precious  metals,  and  sub- 
stituted a  more  fluctuating  and  unsafe  medium,  that  these 
have  withdrawn  capital  from  useful  improvements  and  em- 
ployments to  nourish  idleness,  that  the  wars  of  the  world 
have  swollen  our  commerce  beyond  the  wholesome  limits  of 
exchanging  our  own  productions  for  our  own  wants,  and 
that,  for  the  emolument  of  a  small  proportion  of  our  society, 
who  prefer  these  demoralizing  pursuits  to  labors  useful  to 
the  whole,  the  peace  of  the  whole  is  endangered,  and  all  our 
present  difficulties  produced,  are  evils  more  easily  to  be  de- 
plored than  remedied. 


I  RECEIVED     ...     an  offer  of  Mr.  McDonald  of  an 
iron  mine  to  the  public,  and  I  thank  you  for  taking  the 
trouble  of  making  the  communication,  as  it  might  have 
its  utility.     But  having  always  observed  that  public  works 

118 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

are  much  less  advantageously  managed  than  the  same  are  by 
private  hands,  I  have  thought  it  better  for  the 

12.  107.     public  to  go  to  market  for  whatever  it  wants  which 
is  to  be  found  there ;  for  their  competition  brings 

it  down  to  the  minimum  of  value. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  we  could  buy  brass  cannon  at  market 

cheaper  than  we  could  make  iron  ones. 

IN  the  construction  of  a  law,  even  in  judiciary  cases  of 
meum  and  teum,  where  the  opposite  parties  have  a  right 
and  counter  right  in  the  very  words  of  the  law,  the 
judge  considers  the  intention  of  the  law  giver  as  his  true 
guide,  and  gives  to  all  the  parts  and  expressions  of  the  law 

that  meaning  which  will  effect  instead  of  defeat- 
ii.  318.  ing  its  intention.  But  in  laws  merely  executive, 

where  no  private  right  stands  in  the  way,  and  the 
public  object  is  the  interest  of  all,  a  much  freer  scope  of  con- 
struction, in  favor  of  the  intention  of  the  law,  ought  to  be 
taken,  and  ingenuity  ever  should  be  exercised  in  devising 
constructions  which  may  save  to  the  public  the  benefit  of  the 
law.  Its  intention  is  the  important  thing;  the  means  of  ac- 
quiring it  quite  subordinate.  .  .  .  It  is  further  to  be  con- 
sidered that  the  constitution  gives  the  executive  a  general 
power  to  carry  the  laws  into  execution. 

PERHAPS  it  will  be  found  that  to  obtain  a  just  repub- 
lic (and  it  is  to  secure  our  just  rights  that  we  resort 
to  government  at  all)  it  must  be  so  extensive  as  that 
local  egoisms  may  never  reach  its  greater  part ;  that  on  every 
particular  question,  a  majority  may  be  found  in  its  councils 
free  from  particular  interests,  and  giving  there- 
9.  299.     fore,  an  uniform  prevalence  to  the  principles  of 
justice     .     .     .     it  is  unfortunate,  that  the  efforts 
of  mankind  to  recover  the  freedom  of  which  they  have  been 


119 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

so  long  deprived,  will  be  accompanied  with  violence,  with 
errors,  and  even  with  crimes.  But  while  we  weep  over  the 
means,  we  must  pray  for  the  ends. 


THE  little  spice  of  ambition  which  I  had  in  my  younger 
days  has  long  since  evaporated,  and  I  set  still  less 
store  by  a  posthumous  than  present  name. 
9-  303- 

T  REASON.    This  when  real,  merits  the  highest  pun- 
ishment.   But  most  codes  extend  their  definitions  of 
treason  to  acts  not  really  against  ones  country.  They 
do  not  distinguish  between  acts  against  Government  and  acts 
against  the  oppressions  of  government ;  the  latter  are  virtues  ; 
yet  they  have  furnished  more  victims  to  the  execu- 
8.  332.     tioner  than  the  former;  because  real  treasons  are 
rare;    oppressions    frequent.      The    unsuccessful 
strugglers  against  tyranny  have  been  the  chief  martyrs  of 
treason  laws  in  all  countries.     Reformation  of  government 
with  our  neighbors,  being  as  much  wanted  now  as  reforma- 
tion of  religion  is,  or  ever  was  anywhere,  we  should  not 
wish  them  to  give  up  to  the  executioner  the  patriot  who  fails, 
and  flees  to  us.    Treasons,  then,  taking  the  simulated  with 
the  real,  are  sufficiently  punished  by  exile. 

SUCH  is  the  hospitality  ...  in  America  .  .  .  and  their 
disposition  to  assist  strangers,  that  he  may  boldly  go 
to  any  house  he  sees,  and  make  the  inquiry  he  needs. 
He  will  be  sure  to  be  received  kindly,  honestly  informed,  and 
accommodated  in  a  hospitable  way,  without  any  other  intro- 
duction than  an  information  who  he  is  and  what 
7.  49.       are  his  views.    It  is  not  the  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment in  that  country  to  give  any  aid  to  works  of 
any  kind.    They  let  things  take  their  natural  course  without 
help  or  impediment,  which  is  generally  the  best  policy. 

120 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

HAPPY  for  us  that  abuses  have  not  yet  become  patri- 
monies, and  that  every  description  of  interest  is  in 
favor  of  national  and  moderate  government.     That 
we  are  yet  able  to  send  our  wise  and  good  men  together  to 
talk  over  our  form  of  government,  discuss  its  weakness  and 
establish  its  remedies  with  the  same  sang  froid  as 
7.  72.       they  would  a  subject  of  agriculture.    The  example 

we  have  given  to  the  world  is  single,  that  of  chang-  ,, 
ing  our  form  of  government  under  the  authority  of  reason' 
only,  without  bloodshed. 


I 


T  is  rendering  mutual  service  to  men  of  virtue  and  under- 
standing to  make  them  acquainted  with  one  another. 
6.  424. 


THERE  are  minds  which  can  be  pleased  by  honors  and 
preferments ;  but  I  see  nothing  in  them  but  envy  and 
enmity.  It  is  only  necessary  to  possess  them,  to  know 
how  little  they  contribute  to  happiness,  or  rather  how  hostile 
they  are  to  it.    No  attachments  soothe  the  mind  so  much  as 
those    contracted   in    early   life.     .     .     .     I   had 
6.  427.     rather  be  shut  up  in  a  very  modest  cottage  with 
my  books,  my  family,  and  a  few  old  friends,  din- 
ing on  simple  bacon,  and  letting  the  world  roll  on  as  it  liked, 
than  to  occupy  the  most  splendid  post  which  any  human 
power  can  give.     .     .     . 

HAPPILY  for  us,  that  when  we  find  our  constitutions 
defective  and  insufficient  to  secure  the  happiness  of 
our  people,  we  can  assemble  with  all  the  coolness  of 
philosophers,  and  set  it  to  rights,  while  every  other  nation 
on  earth  must  have  recourse  to  arms  to  amend  or  to  restore 
their  Constitutions. 
6.  295. 

121 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


T 


HE  moment  a  person  forms  a  theory,  his  imagina- 
tion sees  in  every  object  only  the  traits  which  favor 
that  theory.  6.  312. 


I  RELY  on  the  good  sense  of  the  people   for  remedy, 
whereas  the  evils  of  monarchical  governments  are  be- 
yond remedy.     If  any  of  our  countrymen  wish  for  a 
king,  give  them  Aesop's  fable  of  the  frogs  who  asked  a 
King ;  if  this  does  not  cure  them,  send  them  to  Europe.  They 
will  go  back  republicans. 
6.  225. 

I  KNOW  no  condition  happier  than  that  of  a  Virginia 
farmer  might  be,  conducting  himself  as  he  did  during 
the  war.    His  estate  supplies  a  good  table,  clothes  him- 
self and  his  family  with  their  ordinary  wearing  apparel,  fur- 
nishes a  small  surplus  to  buy  salt,  sugar,  coffee,  and  a  little 
finery  for  his  wife  and  daughters,  enables  him  to 
6.  229.     receive  and  visit  his  friends,  and  furnishes  him 
pleasing  and  healthy  occupation.     To  secure  all 
this,  he  needs  but  one  act  of  self-denial  to  put  off  buying 
anything  until  he  has  the  money  to  pay  for  it. 

BUT,  say  they,  the  people  have  acquiesced,  and  this 
has  given  it  an  authority  superior  to  the  laws.     It  is 
true  that  the  people  did  not  rebel  against  it  and  was 
that  a  time  for  the  people  to  rise  in  rebellion  ?  should  a  pru- 
dent acquiescence  at  a  critical  time  be  construed  into  a  con- 
firmation of  every  illegal  thing  done  during  that 
2.  170.     period?     .     .     .     but  to  what  dangerous  lengths 
will  this  argument  lead  ?    Did  the  acquiescence  of 
the  colonies  under  the  various  acts  of  power  exercised  by 
Great  Britain  in  our  infant  State,  confirm  these  acts,  and 
so  far  invest  them  with  the  authority  of  the  people  as  to 


122 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

render  them  unalterable,  and  our  present  resistance  wrong? 
On  every  unauthoritative  exercise  of  power  by  the  legisla- 
ture must  the  people  rise  in  rebellion,  or  their  silence  be  con- 
strued into  a  surrender  of  that  power  to  them?  .  .  . 

OUR  ancient  laws  expressly  declare  that  those  who  are 
but  delegates  themselves  shall  not  delegate  to  others 
powers  which  require  judgment  and  integrity  in  their 
exercise. 
2.  175- 


123 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  CONSTITUTION 


OUR  first  essay  in  America,  to  establish  a  federative 
government,  had  fallen  on  trial  very  short  of  its  ob- 
ject. During  the  war  of  Independence,  while  the 
pressure  of  an  external  enemy  hooped  us  together,  and  their 
enterprises  kept  us  necessarily  alert,  the  spirit  of  the  people, 
excited  by  danger,  was  a  supplement  to  the  Con- 
i.  1 1 6.  federation,  and  urged  them  to  zealous  exertions, 
whether  claimed  by  that  instrument  or  not;  but, 
when  peace  and  safety  were  restored,  and  every  man  be- 
came engaged  in  useful  and  profitable  occupation,  less  at- 
tention was  paid  to  the  calls  of  Congress.  The  fundamental 
defect  of  the  confederation  was,  that  Congress  was  not  au- 
thorized to  act  immediately  on  the  people,  and  by  its  own 
officers.  Their  power  was  only  requisitory,  and  these  requi- 
sitions were  addressed  to  the  different  legislatures,  to  be  by 
them  carried  into  execution,  without  other  coercion  than  the 
moral  principle  of  duty.  This  allowed  in  fact  a  negative  to 
every  legislature,  on  every  measure  proposed  by  Congress; 
a  negative  so  frequently  exercised  in  practice  as  to  benumb 
the  action  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  to  render  it  in- 
efficient in  its  general  objects,  and  more  especially  in  pecu- 
niary and  foreign  concerns.  The  want,  too,  of  a  separation 
of  the  Legislative,  Executive,  and  judiciary  functions  work- 
ed disadvantageously  in  practice.  Yet  this  State  of  things 
afforded  a  happy  augury  of  the  future  march  of  our  confed- 
eracy, when  it  was  seen  that  the  good  sense  and  good  dispo- 
sitions of  the  People,  as  soon  as  they  perceived  the  incom- 
petence of  their  first  compact,  instead  of  leaving  its  correc- 
tion to  insurrection  and  civil  war,  agreed,  with  one  voice,  to 


124 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

elect  deputies  to  a  General  Convention,  who  should  peaceably 
meet  and  agree  on  such  a  Constitution  as  "would  insure 
peace,  justice,  liberty,  the  common  defence,  and  general  wel- 
fare." 

The  example  of  four  Presidents  voluntarily  retiring  at 
the  end  of  their  eighth  year,  and  the  progress  of  public  opin- 
ion, that  the  principle  is  salutary,  have  given  it  in  practice 
the  force  of  precedent  and  usage;  insomuch  that  should  a 
president  consent  to  become  a  candidate  for  a  third  election, 
I  trust  he  would  be  rejected,  on  this  demonstration  of  am- 
bitious views. 


MARCH  n,  1798.    Baldwin  mentions  at  table  the  fol- 
lowing fact:  when  the  bank  bill  was  under  discus- 
sion in  the  House  of  Representatives  Judge  Wilson 
came  in,  and  was  standing  by  Baldwin.    Baldwin  reminded 
him  of  the  following  fact  which  passed  in  the  grand  con- 
ventions.    Among  the  enumerated  powers  given 
i.  423.     to  Congress,  was  one  to  erect  corporations.     It 
was    on    debate    struck   out.       Several    particu- 
lar    powers    were    then    proposed.      Among    others    Rob- 
ert   Morris    proposed    to    give    Congress    a    power    to 
establish    a    National    bank.     .     .     .     Whereupon    it    was 
rejected,   as  was   every  other   special  power,   except  that 
of  giving  copyrights  to  authors,  and  patents  to  inventors; 
the  general  power  of  incorporating  being  whittled  down  to 
this  shred.    Wilson  agreed  to  the  fact. 


OUR  new  Constitution,  of  which  you  speak  also,  has 
succeeded  beyond  what  I  apprehended  it  would  have 
done.    I  did  not  at  first  believe  that  eleven  States  out 
of  thirteen  would  have  consented  to  a  plan  consolidating 


125 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

them  as  much  into  one.     A  change  in  their  dispositions, 
which  had  taken  place  since  I  left  them,  had  ren- 

7.  253.     dered  this  consolidation  necessary,  that  is  to  say, 

had  called  for  a  Federal  Government  which  could 
walk  upon  its  own  legs,  without  leaning  for  support  on  the 
State  legislatures.  A  sense  of  necessity  and  a  submission  to 
it,  is  to  me  a  new  and  consolatory  proof  that,  whenever  the 
people  are  well  informed,  they  can  be  trusted  with  their  own 
government ;  that  whenever  things  get  so  far  wrong  as  to  at- 
tract their  notice,  they  may  be  relied  on  to  set  them  to  rights. 

I  SHALL  hazard  my  own  ideas  to  you  as  hastily  as  my 
business  obliges  me.    I  wish  to  preserve  the  line  drawn 
by  the  Federal  Constitution  between  the  general  and 
particular  governments  as  it  stands  at  present,  and  to  take 
every  prudent  means  of  preventing  either  from  stepping 
over  it.    Though  the  experiment  has  not  yet  had 

8.  276.     a  long  enough  course  to  show  us   from  which 

quarter  encroachments  are  most  to  be  feared,  yet 
it  is  easy  to  foresee,  from  the  nature  of  things,  that  the^nr 
croachments  of  the  state  governments  will  tend  to  an  excess 
of  liberty  which  willj:brfect  itself,  while  those  oj^tfie  Gen- 
eral Government  wilTtend  to  monarchy,  which  will  fortify 
itself  from  day  tojlay,  instead  of  woriong  its  own  care,  y 
all  experience  shows!  I  would  ratfierbe  exposed  to  the  in- 
ctmveniences  attending  too  much  liberty,  than  those  attend- 
ing too  small  a  degree  of  it.  ...  Responsibility  is  a 
tremendous  engine  in  a  free  government.  .  .  . 


IT  is  a  fatal  heresy  to  suppose  that  either  our  State  gov- 
ernments are  superior  to  the  Federal,  or  the  Federal  to 
the  States.    The  people  to  whom  all  authority  belongs, 
have  divided  the  powers  of  government  into  two  distinct 

126 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

departments,  the  leading  characters  of  which  are  foreign 
and  domestic ;  and  they  have  appointed  for  each  a 

15.  328.     distinct   set   of   functionaries.    These  they  have 

made  co-ordinate,  checking  and  balancing  each 
other.  .  .  .  As  independent  as  separate  nations,  a  spirit 
of  forbearance  and  compromise  therefore,  and  not  of  en- 
croachment and  usurpation,  is  the  healing  balm  of  such  a 
Constitution;  and  each  party  should  prudently  shrink  from 
all  approach  to  the  line  of  demarcation,  instead  of  rashly 
overleaping  it,  or  throwing  grapples  ahead  to  haul  to  here- 
after. 

THESE  cares  are  however  no  longer  mine.     I  resign 
myself  cheerfully  to  the  managers  of  the  ship,  and 
the  more  contentedly  as  I  am  near  the  end  of  my 
voyage.     I  have  learned  to  be  less  confident  in  the  conclu- 
sions of  human  reason, and  give  more  credit  to  contrary  opin- 
ions.    .     .     .     The  radical  idea  of  the  character 

16.  23.       of  the  Constitution  of  our  government,  which  I 

have  adopted  as  a  key  in  cases  of  doubtful  con- 
struction, is,  that  the  whole  field  of  government  is  divided 
into  two  departments,  domestic  and  foreign  (the  States  in 
their  mutual  relations  being  of  the  latter)  ;  that  the  former 
department  is  reserved  exclusively  to  the  respective  States 
within  their  own  limits,  and  the  latter  assigned  to  a  separate 
set  of  functionaries,  constituting  what  may  be  called  the  for- 
eign branch,  which,  instead  of  a  federal  basis,  is  established 
as  a  separate  government  quoad  hoc,  acting  as  the  domestic 
branch  does  on  the  citizens  directly  and  coercively;  that 
these  departments  have  distinct  directories,  co-ordinate,  and 
equally  independent  and  supreme,  each  within  its  own  sphere 
of  action.  Whenever  a  doubt  arises  to  which  of  these 
branches  a  power  belongs,  I  try  it  by  this  test.  ...  If 
we  have  a  doubt,  relative  to  any  power,  we  ought  not  to 


127 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

exercise  it.  When  we  consider  the  extensive  and  deep- 
seated  opposition  to  this  assumption,  the  conviction  enter- 
tained by  so  many  that  this  deduction  of  powers  by  elaborate 
construction,  prostrates  the  rights  reserved  to  the  States; 
the  difficulties  with  which  it  will  rub  along  in  the  course  of 
its  exercise ;  that  changes  of  majorities  will  be  changing  the 
system  backwards  and  forwards,  so  that  no  undertaking  un- 
der it  will  be  safe;  that  there  is  not  a  State  in  the  Union 
which  would  not  give  the  power  willingly,  by  way  of  amend- 
ment, with  some  little  guard,  perhaps,  against  abuse;  I  can- 
not but  think  it  would  be  the  wisest  course  to  ask  an  ex- 
press grant  of  the  power.  A  government  held  together  by 
the  bands  of  reason  only  requires  much  compromise  of  opin- 
ion ;  that  things  even  salutary  should  not  be  crammed  down 
the  throats  of  dissenting  brethren,  especially  when  they  may 
be  put  into  a  form  to  be  willingly  swallowed,  and  that  a  great 
deal  of  indulgence  is  necessary  to  strengthen  habits  of  har- 
mony and  fraternity.  In  such  a  case  it  seems  to  me  that  it 
would  be  safer  and  wiser  to  ask  an  express  grant  of  the 
power.  This  would  render  its  exercise  smooth  and  accept- 
able to  all,  and  insure  to  it  all  the  facilities  which  the  States 
could  contribute,  to  prevent  that  kind  of  abuse  which  all 
will  fear,  because  all  know  it  is  so  much  practised  in  public 
bodies,  I  mean  the  bartering  of  votes.  It  would  reconcile 
every  one,  if  limited  by  the  proviso  that  the  federal  propor- 
tion of  each  State  should  be  expended  within  the  State.  With 
this  single  security  against  partiality  and  corrupt  bargaining, 
I  suppose  there  is  not  a  State,  perhaps  not  a  man  in  the 
Union,  who  would  not  consent  to  add  this  to  the  powers  of 
the  General  Government. 


O 


UR  new  constitution.  This  instrument  forms  us  into 
one  State,  as  to  certain  objects,  and  gives  us  a  leg- 
islative and  executive  body  for  these  objects.  It 

128 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

should  therefore  guard  us  against  their  abuses  of  power, 
within  the  field  submitted  to  them     .     .     .     half  a  loaf  is 

better  than  no  bread.    I  i-w«  cannot  secure  all  our 
7.  309.     rights  let  us  secure  what  we  can     ...    the 

jealousy  of  the  subordinate  governments  is  a 
precious  reliance  ...  a  brace  the  more  will  often  keep 
up  the  building,  which  would  have  fallen  with  that  one  brace 
the  less. 

The  executive  in  our  governments  is  not  the  sole,  it  is 
scarcely  the  chief  object  of  my  jealousy.  The  tyranny  of 
the  legislatures  is  the  most  formidable  dread  at  present,  and 
will  be  for  many  years.  That  of  the  executive  will  come 
in  its  turn ;  but  it  will  be  ^LsLremote  period. 

THE  several  States  composing  the  United  States  of 
America,  are  not  united  on  the  principle  of  unlim- 
ited submission  to  their  General  Government;  but 
that  by  a  compact  under  the  style  and  title  of  a  Constitution 
for  the  United  States  and  of  amendments  thereto,  they  con- 
stituted a  General  Government  for  special  pur- 
J7-  379-  poses — delegating  to  that  government  certain 
definite  powers,  reserving,  each  State  to  itself,  the 
residuary  mass  of  right  to  their  own  self  government;  and 
that  whensoever  the  General  Government  assumes  undele- 
gated  powers,  its  acts  are  unauthoritative,  void,  and  of  no 
force;  that  to  this  compact  each  State  acceded  as  a  State, 
and  is  an  integral  party,  its  co-States  forming,  as  to  itself, 
the  other  party:  that  the  Government  created  by  this  com- 
pact was  not  made  the  exclusive  or  final  judge  of  the  extent 
of  the  powers  delegated  to  itself;  since  that  would  have 
made  its  discretion,  and  not  the  Constitution,  the  measures 
of  its  powers;  but  that  as  in  all  other  cases  of  compact 
among  powers  having  no  common  judge,  each  party  has  an 
equal  right  to  judge  for  itself,  as  well  of  infractions  as  of 
the  mode  and  measure  of  redress. 


129 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  having  delegated  to 
Congress  a  power  to  punish  treason,  counterfeiting  the  se- 
curities and  current  coin  of  the  United  States,  piracies,  and 
felonies  committed  on  the  high  seas,  and  offences  against  the 
law  of  .nations,  and  no  other  crimes  whatsoever;  and  it  be- 
ing true  as  a  general  principle,  and  one  of  the  amendments 
of  the  Constitution  having  so  declared,  "that  the  powers 
not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor 
prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  re- 
spectively, or  to  the  people,"  therefore  .  .  .  the  act  to 
punish  frauds  committed  on  the  bank  of  the  United  States 
and  all  other  acts  which  assume  to  create,  define,  or  punish 
crimes,  other  than  those  so  enumerated  in  the  Constitution, 
are  altogether  void,  and  of  no  force;  and  that  the  power  to 
create,  define,  and  punish  such  other  crimes,  is  reserved, 
and  of  right,  appertains  solely  and  exclusively  to  the  respec- 
tive states,  each  within  its  own  territory.  .  .  .  Resolved 
(385)  That  a  committee  of  conference  and  correspondence 
be  appointed,  who  shall  have  in  charge  to  communicate  the 
preceding  resolutions  to  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
States ;  to  assure  them  that  this  commonwealth  continues  in 
the  same  esteem  of  their  friendship  and  Union  which  it  has 
manifested  from  that  moment  at  which  a  common  danger 
first  suggested  a  common  Union:  that  it  considers  Union, 
for  specified  national  purposes,  and  particularly  to  those 
specified  in  their  late  federal  compact,  to  be  friendly  to  the 
peace,  happiness  and  prosperity  of  all  the  States :  that  faith- 
ful to  that  compact,  according  to  the  plain  intent  and  mean- 
ing in  which  it  was  understood  and  acceded  to  by  the  several 
parties,  it  is  sincerely  anxious  for  its  preservation:  that  it 
does  also  believe  that  to  take  from  the  States  all  the  powers 
of  self-government  and  transfer  them  to  a  general  and  con- 
solidated government,  without  regard  to  the  special  delega- 
tions and  reservations  solemnly  agreed  to  in  that  compact,  is 


130 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

not  for  the  peace,  happiness  or  prosperity  of  these  States; 
and  that  therefore  this  Commonwealth  is  determined,  as  it 
doubts  not  its  co-States  are,  to  submit  to  undelegated,  and 
consequently  unlimited  powers  in  no  man,  or  body  of  men  on 
earth :  that  in  case  of  an  abuse  of  the  delegated  powers,  the 
members  of  the  general  government,  being  chosen  by  the 
People,  a  change  by  the  People  would  be  the  Constitutional 
remedy;  but,  where  powers  are  assumed  which  have  not 
been  delegated,  a  nullification  of  the  act  is  the  rightful  rem- 
edy :  that  every  State  has  a  natural  right  in  cases  not  within 
the  compact,  to  nullify  of  their  own  authority  all  assump- 
tions of  power  by  others  within  their  limits:  that  without 
this  right,  they  would  be  under  the  dominion,  absolute  and 
unlimited,  of  whosoever  might  exercise  this  right  of  judg- 
ment for  them :  that  nevertheless,  this  commonwealth,  from 
motives  of  regard  and  respect  for  its  co-states,  has  wished 
to  communicate  with  them  on  the  subject:  that  with  them 
alone  it  is  proper  to  communicate,  they  alone  being  parties 
to  the  compact,  and  solely  authorized  to  judge  in  the  last 
resort  of  the  powers  exercised  under  it,  Congress  being  not 
a  party,  but  merely  the  Creature  of  the  compact,  and  subject 
as  to  its  assumptions  of  power  to  the  final  judgment  of  those 
by  whom,  and  for  whose  use  itself  and  its  powers  were  all 
created  and  modified.  Confidence  is  everywhere  the  parent 
of  despotism — free  government  is  founded  in  jealousy,  and 
not  in  confidence:  it  is  jealousy  and  not  confidence  which 
prescribes  limited  constitutions,  to  bind  down  those  whom  we 
are  obliged  to  trust  with  power;  that  our  Constitution  has 
accordingly  fixed  the  limits  to  which,  and  no  further,  our 
confidence  may  go,  let  the  honest  advocate  of  confidence  read 
the  alien  and  sedition  acts,  and  say  if  the  Constitution  has 
not  been  wise  in  fixing  limits  to  the  Government  it  created, 
and  whether  we  should  be  wise  in  destroying  those  limits. 
.  .  .  In  questions  of  power,  let  no  more  be  heard  of 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Confidence  in  man,  but  bind  him  down  from  mischief  by 
the  chains  of  the  Constitution.  .  .  .  This  Commonwealth 
does  therefore  call  on  its  co-States  for  expression  of  their 
sentiments  .  .  .  and  it  doubts  not  .  .  .  that  the  co-States, 
recurring  to  their  natural  right  in  cases  not  made  federal, 
will  concur  in  declaring  these  acts  void,  and  of  no  force, 
and  will  each  take  measures  of  its  own  for  providing  that 
neither  these  acts,  nor  any  others  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment not  plainly  and  intentionally  authorized  by  the  Consti- 
tution, shall  be  exercised  within  their  respective  territories. 

PROTEST  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia.  Whilst 
the  General  Assembly  thus  declares  the  rights  retained 
by  the  States,  rights  which  they  have  never  yielded, 
and  which  this  State  will  never  voluntarily  yield,  they  do 
not  mean  to  raise  the  banner  of  disaffection,  or  of  separation 

from  their  Sister  States,  co-parties  with  them- 
17.  445.  selves  to  this  compact.  They  know  and  value  too 

highly  the  blessings  of  their  Union  as  to  foreign 
nations  and  questions  arising  among  themselves  to  consider 
every  infraction  as  to  be  met  by  actual  resistance.  They  re- 
spect too  affectionately  the  opinions  of  those  pos- 
sessing the  same  rights  under  the  same  instrument, 
to  make  every  difference  of  construction  a  ground 
of  immediate  rupture.  They  would,  indeed,  consider 
such  a  rupture  as  among  the  greatest  calamities  which 
could  befall  them;  but  not  the  greatest.  There  is  one 
greater,  submission  to  a  government  of  unlimited  powers. 
It  is  only  when  the  hope  of  avoiding  this  shall  become  abso- 
lutely desperate,  that  further  forbearance  could  not  be  in- 
dulged. Should  a  majority  of  the  co-parties,  therefore,  con- 
trary to  the  expectation  and  hope  of  this  assembly,  prefer, 
at  this  time,  acquiescence  in  these  assumptions  of  power  by 
the  federal  member  of  the  government,  we  will  be  patient 


132 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

and  suffer  much,  under  the  confidence  that  time,  ere  it  be  too 
late,  will  prove  to  them  also  the  bitter  consequences  in  which 
that  usurpation  will  involve  us  all.  In  the  meanwhile,  we 
will  breast  with  them,  rather  than  separate  from  them,  every 
misfortune,  save  that  only,  of  living  under  a  government  of 
unlimited  powers. 

We  owe  every  other  sacrifice  to  ourselves,  to  our  federal 
brethren,  and  to  the  world  at  large,  to  pursue  with  temper 
and  perseverance  the  great  experiment  which  shall  prove 
that  man  is  capable  of  living  in  society,  governing  itself  by 
laws  self-imposed,  and  securing  to  its  members  the  enjoy- 
ment of  life,  liberty,  property,  and  peace;  and  further  to 
show,  that  even  when  the  government  of  its  choice  shall 
manifest  a  tendency  to  degeneracy,  we  are  not  at  once  to 
despair,  but  that  the  will  and  the  watchfulness  of  its  sounder 
parts  will  reform  its  aberrations,  recall  it  to  original  and 
legitimate  principles,  and  restrain  it  within  the  rightful  limits 
of  self-government.  .  .  .  Supposing  then  that  it  might 
be  for  the  good  of  the  whole,  as  some  of  its  co-states  seem 
to  think,  that  the  power  of  making  roads  and  canals  should 
be  added  to  those  directly  given  to  the  federal  branch,  as 
more  likely  to  be  systematically  and  beneficially  directed, 
than  by  the  independent  action  of  the  several  States,  this 
commonwealth,  from  respect  to  these  opinions,  and  a  desire 
of  conciliation  with  its  co-states,  will  consent,  in  concur- 
rence with  them,  to  make  this  addition,  provided  it  be  done 
regularly  by  an  amendment  of  the  compact,  in  the  way  estab- 
lished by  that  instrument,  and  provided  also,  it  be  sufficiently 
guarded  against  abuses,  compromises,  and  corrupt  practices, 
not  only  of  possible,  but  of  probable  occurrence. 

THE  State  is  invaded,  militia  to  be  called  out,  an  army 
marched,  arms  and  provisions  to  be  issued  from  the 
public  magazines,  the  legislature  to  be  convened,  and 
the  council  is  divided.    Can  it  be  believed  to  have  been  the 


133 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

intention  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  that  the  Con- 
stitution itself  and  their  constituents  with  it 
13.  128.  should  be  destroyed  for  want  of  a  will  to  direct  the 
resources  they  had  provided  for  its  preservation? 
Before  such  possible  consequences  all  verbal  scruples  must 
vanish ;  construction  must  be  made  secundum  arbitrium  boni 
veri,  and  the  Constitution  be  rendered  a  practicable  thing. 
The  exposition  of  it  must  be  vicious,  which  would  leave  the 
Nation  under  the  most  dangerous  emergencies  without  a  di- 
recting will.  The  cautious  maxims  of  the  Bench  to  seek 
the  will  of  the  legislator  and  his  words  only,  are  proper  and 
safer  for  judicial  government.  They  act  ever  on  an  indi- 
vidual case  only,  the  evil  of  which  is  partial,  and  gives  time 
for  correction.  But  an  instant  of  delay  in  executive  pro- 
ceedings may  be  fatal  to  the  whole  nation.  They  must  not 
therefore  be  laced  up  in  the  rules  of  the  judiciary  depart- 
ment. They  must  seek  the  intention  of  the  legislator  in  all 
the  circumstances  which  may  indicate  it  in  the  history  of 
the  day  ...  in  reason  and  practice. 

WOULD  Congress  grant  a  charter  of  incorporation 
and  a  sum  for  premiums  annually?     It  has  al- 
ways been  denied  by  the  Republican  party  in  this 
country  that  the  Constitution  had  given  the  power  of  incor- 
poration to  Congress.    On  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  this  was  the  great  ground  on 
12.  231.     which    that    establishment    was    combated    and 
the    party    prevailing    supported  it  only  on  the 
ground  of  its  being  an  incident  to  the  power  given  them  for 
raising  money.     On  this  ground  it  has  been  acquiesced  in, 
and  will  probably  be  again  acquiesced  in  as  subsequently  con- 
firmed by  public  opinion.    But  in  no  instance  have  they  ever 
exercised  this  power  of  incorporation  out  of  this  district, 
of  which  they  are  the  only  legislature. 


134 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Tt  is  still  more  settled  that  among  the  purposes  to  which  the 
Constitution  permits  them  to  apply  money,  the  granting  pre- 
miums or  bounties  is  not  enumerated,  and  there  has  never 
been  a  single  instance  of  their  doing  it,  although  there  has 
been  a  multiplicity  of  applications.  The  Constitution  has  left 
these  encouragements  to  the  several  States.  I  have  in  two 
or  three  messages  recommended  to  Congress  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  which  should  extend  their  power  to  these 
objects.  But  nothing  is  yet  done. 

SOME  men  look  at  Constitutions  with  sanctimonious 
reverence,  and  deem  them  like  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant, too  sacred  to  be  touched.  They  ascribe  to  the 
men  of  the  preceding  age  a  wisdom  more  than  human,  and 
suppose  what  they  did  to  be  beyond  amendment.  I  knew 
that  age  well ;  I  belonged  to  it  and  labored  with  it. 
15.  40.  It  deserved  well  of  its  country.  It  was  very  like 
the  present,  but  lacked  the  experience  of  the  pres- 
ent ;  and  forty  years  of  experience  in  government  is  worth  a 
century  of  book  reading;  and  this  they  would  say  them- 
selves, were  they  to  rise  from  the  dead.  I  am  certainly  not 
an  advocate  of  frequent  and  untried  changes  in  laws  and 
Constitutions.  I  think  moderate  imperfections  had  better  be 
borne  with;  because  when  once  known,  we  accommodate 
ourselves  to  them,  and  find  practical  means  of  correcting 
their  evil  effects.  But  I  know  also  that  laws  and  institutions 
must  go  hand  and  hand  with  the  progress  of  the  human 
mind.  .  .  .  We  might  as  well  require  a  man  to  wear  the 
coat  that  fitted  him  when  a  boy  as  civilized  society  to  remain 
ever  under  the  regime  of  their  ancestors.  It  is  this  prepos- 
terous idea  which  has  lately  deluged  Europe  in  blood.  Their 
monarchs,  instead  of  wisely  yielding  to  the  gradual  change 
of  circumstances,  of  favoring  progressive  accommodation  to 
progressive  improvement,  have  clung  to  old  abuses,  entrench- 


135 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ed  themselves  behind  steady  habits,  and  obliged  their  sub- 
jects to  seek  through  blood  and  violence  rash  and  ruinous 
innovations,  which  had  they  been  referred  to  the  peaceful 
deliberations  and  collected  wisdom  of  the  nation,  would  have 
been  put  into  acceptable  and  salutary  forms.  Let  us  follow 
no  such  examples,  nor  weakly  believe  that  one  generation  is 
not  as  capable  as  another  of  taking  care  of  itself,  and  of 
ordering  its  own  affairs.  .  .  .  Each  generation  is  as  in- 
dependent of  the  one  preceding  as  that  was  of  all  that  had 
gone  before.  It  has,  like  them,  the  right  to  choose  for  itself 
the  form  of  government  it  believes  most  promotive  of  its 
own  happiness ;  consequently  to  accommodate  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  it  finds  itself,  that  received  from  its  pre- 
decessors; and  it  is  for  the  peace  and  good  of  mankind 
that  a  solemn  opportunity  of  doing  this  every  nineteen  or 
twenty  years  should  be  provided  by  the  Constitution,  so  that 
it  may  be  handed  on  with  periodical  repairs,  from  genera- 
tion, to  the  end  of  time,  if  anything  human  can  so  long 
endure. 


136 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE  JUDICIARY 

THERE  was  another  amendment,  of  which  none  of 
us  thought  at  the  time,  and  in  the  omission  of  which, 
lurks  the  germ  that  is  to  destroy  this  happy  com- 
bination of  National  powers  in  the  General  government, 
for   matters   of   National   concern,   and   independent  pow- 
ers in  the  States  for  what  concerns  the  States  sev- 
i.  120.     erally.  .  .  .  Our  Judges  are  effectually  independent 
of  the  Nation.  But  this  ought  not  to  be.  I  would 
not  indeed  make  them  dependent  upon  the  Executive  author- 
ity; as  they  formerly  were  in  England;  but  I  deem  it  indis- 
pensable to  the  continuance  of  this  government  that  they 
should  be  submitted  to  some  practical  and  impartial  control ; 
and  that  this,  to  be  imparted  must  be  compounded  of  a  mix- 
ture of  State  and  Federal  authorities. 

It  is  not  enough  that  honest  men  are  appointed  Judges. 
All  know  the  influence  of  interest  on  the  mind  of  man,  and 
how  unconsciously  his  judgment  is  warped  by  that  influence. 
To  this  bias  add  Esprit  de  Corps  of  their  peculiar  maxim 
and  creed,  that  "it  is  the  office  of  a  good  Judge  to  enlarge 
his  jurisdiction,"  and  the  absence  of  responsibility;  and  how 
can  we  expect  impartial  decision  between  the  General  Gov- 
ernment, of  which  they  are  themselves  so  eminent  a  part, 
and  an  individual  state,  from  which  they  have  nothing  to 
hope  or  fear?  We  have  seen  too  that  contrary  to  all  cor- 
rect example,  they  are  in  the  habit  of  going  out  of  the  ques- 
tion before  them,  to  throw  an  anchor  ahead,  and  grapple 
further  hold  for  future  advances  of  power.  They  are  then, 
in  fact,  the  corps  of  sappers  and  miners,  steadily  working  to 
undermine  the  independent  rights  of  the  states,  and  to  con- 
solidate all  power  in  the  hands  of  that  government  in  which 


137 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

they  have  so  important  a  freehold  estate.  But  it  is  not  by 
the  consolidation  or  concentration  of  powers,  but  by  their 
distribution,  that  good  government  is  effected.  Were  not 
this  great  country  already  divided  into  States,  that  division 
must  be  made,  that  each  might  do  for  itself  directly,  and 
what  it  can  so  much  better  do  than  a  distant  authority.  Every 
State  again  is  divided  into  Counties,  each  to  take  care  of 
what  lies  within  its  particular  bounds;  each  County  again 
into  Townships  or  Wards,  to  manage  minuter  details ;  and 
every  ward  into  farms  to  be  governed  each  by  its  individual 
proprietor.  Were  we  directed  from  Washington  when  to 
sow  and  when  to  reap  we  should  soon  want  bread.  It  is  by 
this  partition  of  cares,  descending  in  gradation  from  general 
to  particular,  that  the  mass  of  human  affairs  may  be  best 
managed  for  the  good  and  prosperity  of  all.  I  repeat  that 
I  do  not  charge  the  Judges  with  wilful  and  ill-intentioned 
error;  but  honest  error  must  be  arrested,  where  its  tolera- 
tion leads  to  public  ruin  .  .  .  judges  should  be  with- 
drawn from  the  Bench,  whose  erroneous  biases  are  leading 
us  to  dissolution.  It  may,  indeed,  injure  them  in  fame  and 
fortune;  but  it  saves  the  Republic,  which  is  the  first  and 
supreme  law. 

THE  dignity  and  stability  of  government  in  all  its 
branches,  the  morals  of  the  people,  and  every  bless- 
ing of  society  depend  so  much  upon  an  upright  and 
skilful  administration  of  justice,  that  the  judicial  power 
ought  to  be  distinct  from  both  the  legislature  and  executive, 
and  independent  from  both,  that  so  it  may  be  a 
2.  4.         check  upon  both,  as  both  should  be  checks  upon 
that.     The  judges,  therefore,  should  always  be 
men  of  learning  and  experience  in  the  laws  of  exemplary 
morals,  great  patience,  calmness  and  attention;  their  minds 
should  not  be  distracted  with  jarring  interests;  they  should 

138 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

not  be  dependent  upon  any  man  or  body  of  men.  To  these 
ends  they  should  hold  estates  for  life  in  their  offices,  or,  in 
other  words,  their  commissions  should  be  during  good  be- 
havior, and  their  salaries  ascertained  and  established  by  law. 

IT  has  long  been  my  opinion,  and  I  have  never  shrunk 
from  its  expression     .     .     .     that  the  germ  of  dissolu- 
tion of  our  federal  government  is  in  the  Constitution  of 
our  Federal  Judiciary;  an  irresponsible  body  (for  impeach- 
ment is  scarcely  a  scare  crow),  working  like  gravity  by  night 
and  by  day,  gaining  a  little  to-day  and  a  little  to- 
15.  331.     morrow,  and  advancing  its  noiseless  step  like  a 
thief,  over  the  field  of  jurisdiction,  until  all  shall 
be  usurped  from  the  States,  and  the  government  of  all  be 
consolidated  into  one.    To  this  I  am  opposed ;  because,  when 
all  government,  domestic  and  foreign,  in  little  as  in  great 
things,  shall  be  drawn  to  Washington  as  the  centre  of  all 
power,  it  will  render  powerless  the  checks  of  one  govern- 
ment on  another,  and  will  become  as  venal  and  oppressive 
as  the  government  from  which  we  separated.    It  will  be  as 
in  Europe,  where  every  man  must  be  either  pike  or  gudgeon, 
hammer  or  anvil.     Our  functionaries  and  theirs  are  wares 
from  the  same  workshop;  made  of  the  same  materials,  and 
by  the  same  hand.     .     .     . 

IF  ever  this  vast  country  is  brought  under  a  single  gov- 
ernment, it  will  be  one  of  the  most  extensive  corruption, 
indifferent  and  incapable  of  a  wholesome  care  over  so 
wide  a  surface.    This  will  not  be  borne,  and  you  will  have 
to  choose  between  reformation  and  revolution.     If  I  know 
the  spirit  of  this  country,  the  one  or  the  other  is  in- 
J5-  389-     evitable.     Before  the. canker  becomes  too  inveter- 
ate, before  its  venom  has  reached  so  much  of  the 
body  politic  as  to  get  beyond  control,  remedy  should  be  ap- 


1.39 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


plied.  Let  the  future  appointment  of  Judges  be  for  four  or 
six  years,  and  renewable  by  the  President  and  Senate.  This 
will  bring  their  conduct  at  regular  periods,  under  revision 
and  probation,  and  may  keep  them  in  equipoise  between  the 
general  and'  special  governments.  We  have  erred  in  this 
point  by  copying  England,  where  certainly  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  have  the  judges  independent  of  the  king.  But  we  have 
omitted  to  copy  their  caution  also,  which  makes  a  judge 
removable  on  the  address  of  both  Legislative  Houses.  That 
there  should  be  public  functionaries  independent  of  the  na- 
tion ...  is  a  solecism  in  a  republic  of  the  first  order 
of  absurdity  and  inconsistency. 

TAXES  on  consumption  like  those  on  capital  or  in- 
come, to  be  just,  must  be  uniform.     I  do  not  mean 
to  say  that  it  may  not  be  for  the  general  interest  to 
foster  for  awhile  certain  infant  manufactures,  until  they  are 
strong  enough  to  stand  against  foreign  rivals,  but  when  evi- 
dent that  they  will  never  be  so,  it  is  against  right 
15.  432.     to  make  the  other  branches  of  industry  support 
them. 


140 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XI. 

FOREIGN  RELATIONS 

IF  there  be  one  principle  more  deeply  rooted  than  any 
other  in  the  mind  of  every  American,  it  is  that  we 
should  have  nothing  to  do  with  conquest.     .     .     .     An 
exchange  of  surplusses  and  wants  between  neighbor  nations 
is  not  only  a  right  but  a  duty,  under  the  moral  law,  and 
measures  against  right  should  be  mollified  in  their 

8.  219.     exercise,  if  it  be  wished  to  lengthen  them  to  the 

greatest  term  possible.  Circumstances  sometimes 
require  that  rights  the  most  unquestionable  should  be  ad- 
vanced with  delicacy. 

I  WOULD  rather  be  in  dependence  upon  Great  Britain, 
properly  limited  than  on  any  nation  on  earth,  or  than 
on  no  nation.    But,  I  am  one  of  those,  too,  rather  than 
submit  to  the  rights  of  legislating  for  us,  assumed  by  the 
British  parliament,  and  which  late  experience  has  shown 
they  will  so  cruelly  exercise,  would  lend  my  hand 
4.  28.       to  sink  the  whole  island  in  the  ocean.     (Written 
in  1775.) 

WE  certainly  cannot   deny  to  other  nations  that 
principle  whereon  our  government  is  founded, 
that  every  nation  has  a  right  to  govern  itself  in- 
ternally under  what  form  it  pleases,  and  to  change  these 
forms  at  will ;  and  externally  to  transact  business  with  other 
nations    through    whatever    organ    it    chooses, 

9.  7.         whether  that  be  king,  convention,  assembly,  com- 

mittee, President,  or  whatever  it  be.  The  only 
thing  essential  is,  the  will  of  the  nation.  Taking  this  as  your 
polar  star  you  can  hardly  err. 


141 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

P  I  *%  HE  day  is  not  distant  when  we  may  formally  require 
a  meridian  of  partition  through  the  ocean  which 
•^       separates  the  two  hemispheres,  on  the  hither  side  of 
which  no  European  gun  shall  ever  be  heard,  nor  an  American 
on  the  other. 
15-  263. 


E 


STABLISH  the  eternal  truth  that  acquiescence  un- 
der insult  is  not  the  way  to  escape  war. 
9-  308. 


/  |  ^  HAT  the  persons  of  our  citizens  shall  be  safe  in  free- 
ly traversing  the  ocean,  that  the  transportation  of 
•^       our  own  produce,  in  our  own  vessels,  to  the  mar- 
kets of  our  choice,  and  the  return  to  us  of  the  articles  we 
want  for  our  own  use,  shall  be  unmolested,  I  hold  to  be 
fundamental,  and  the  gauntlet  that  must  be  for- 
14.  301.     ever  hurled  at  him  who  questions  it. 

FOR  my  part  I  wish  that  all  nations  may  recover  and 
retain  their  Independence ;  that  those  which  are  over- 
grown may  not  advance  beyond  safe  measures  of 
power,   that  a   salutary  balance  may  be   ever   maintained 
among  nations,  and  that  our  peace,  commerce,  and  friend- 
ship may  be  sought  and  cultivated  by  all.     It  is 
14.  308.     our     business     to     manufacture     for     ourselves 
whatever  we  can,  to  keep  our  markets  open  for 
what  we  can  spare  or  want ;  and  the  less  we  have  to  do  with 
the  enmities  of  Europe,  the  better.     Not  in  our  day,  but 
at  no  distant  one,  we  may  shake  a  rod  over  the  heads  of  all,, 
which  may  make  the  stoutest  tremble.    But  I  hope  our  wis- 
dom will  grow  with  our  power,  and  teach  us  that  the  less, 
we  use  our  power  the  greater  it  will  be. 

142 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ALWAYS  a  friend  to  peace  and  believing  it  to  promote 
eminently  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  mankind, 
I  am  ever  unwilling  that  it  should  be  disturbed  as 
long  as  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  nations  can  be  pre- 
served.   But  whensoever  hostile  aggressions  on  these  require 
a  resort  to  war,  we  must  meet  our  duty  and  con- 
19.  156.    vince  the  world  that  we  are  just   friends  and 
brave  enemies.     (Written  to  Andrew  Jackson.) 

YOU  have  not  been  mistaken  in  supposing  my  views 
and  feeling  to  be  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  war. 
Of  my  disposition  to  maintain  peace  until  its  condi- 
tion shall  be  made  less  tolerable  than  that  of  war  itself,  the 
world  has  had  proofs,  and  more  perhaps  than  it  has  ap- 
proved.   I  hope  it  is  practicable,  by  improving  the 
1 8.  298.     mind  and  morals  of  society,  to  lessen  the  dispo- 
sition to  war ;  but  of  its  abolition  I  despair.    Still, 
on  the  axiom  that  a  less  degree  of  evil  is  preferable  to  a 
greater,  no  means  should  be  neglected  which  may  add  weight 
to  the  better  scale. 


I  HAVE  ever  deemed  it  fundamental  for  the  United  States 
never  to  take  active  part  in  the  quarrels  of  Europe. 
Their  political  interests  are  entirely  distinct  from  ours. 
Their  mutual  jealousies,  their  balance  of  power,  their  com- 
plicated alliances,  their  forms  and  principles  of  government, 
are  all  foreign  to  us.    They  are  nations  of  eternal 
15.  436.     war.     All  their  energies  are  expended  in  the  de- 
struction of  their  labor,  property,  and  lives  of 
their  people.    On  our  part,  never  had  a  people  so  favorable 
a  chance  of  trying  the  opposite  system,  of  peace  and  fra- 
ternity with  mankind,  and  the  direction  of  all  our  means 
and  faculties  to  the  purposes  of  improvement  instead  of  de- 


143 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

struction.  With  Europe  we  have  few  occasions  of  collision, 
and  these,  with  a  little  prudence  and  forbearance,  may  be 
generally  accommodated. 

OUR  difficulties  are  indeed  great     .     .     .     but  when 
viewed  in  comparison  to  those  of  Europe,  they  are 
the  joys  of  paradise.     .     .     .     Every  government  but 
one  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  demolished,  a  conqueror 
roaming  over  the  face  of  the  earth  with  havoc  and  destruc- 
tion, a  pirate  spreading  misery  and  ruin  over  the 
12.  372.     face  of  the  ocean.     Indeed,  my  friend,  ours  is  a 
bed  of  roses.     And  the  system  of  government 
which  shall  keep  us  afloat  amidst  the  wreck  of  the  world, 
will  be  immortalized  in  history.     We  have,  to  be  sure,  our 
petty  squabbles  and  heart  burnings,  and  we  have  something 
of  the  blue  devils  at  times,  as  to  these  raw  heads  and  bloody 
bones  that  are  eating  up  other  nations.     But  happily  for  us 
the  Mammoth  (Napoleon)  cannot  swim,  nor  the  Leviathan 
(England)  move  on  dry  land;  and  if  we  will  keep  out  of 
their  way,  they  cannot  get  at  us. 

SHOULD  foreign  nations,  however,  deceived  by  this 
appearance  of  division  and  weakness,  render  it  neces- 
sary to  vindicate  by  arms  the  injuries  to  our  coun- 
try, I  believe,  with  you,  that  the  spirit  of  revolution  is  not 
extinguished,  and  that  the  cultivators  of  peace  will  again,  as 
on  that  occasion,  be  transformed  at  once  into  a 
12.  317.     nation  of  warriors  who  will  leave  us  nothing  to 
fear  for  the  natural  and  national  rights  of  our 
country. 

I  WOULD     .     .     .     erect  a  column  on  the  southernmost 
limit  of  Cuba,  and  inscribe  on  it  a  ne  plus  ultra  as  to  us 
in  that  direction.    We  should  then  have  only  to  include 
the  North  in  our  confederacy,  which  would  be  of  course  in 


144 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  first  war,  and  we  should  have  such  an  empire  for  liberty 
as  she  has  never  surveyed  since  the  creation,  and 
12.  277.  I  am  persuaded  no  constitution  was  ever  before  so 
well  calculated  as  ours  for  extensive  empire  and 
self-government.  ...  It  will  be  objected  to  our  receiv- 
ing Cuba,  that  no  limit  can  then  be  drawn  to  our  future  ac- 
quisitions. Cuba  can  be  defended  by  us  without  a  navy, 
and  this  develops  the  principle  which  ought  to  limit  our 
views.  Nothing  should  ever  be  accepted  which  would  re- 
quire a  navy  to  defend  it. 

I  HAVE  but  one  system  of  ethics  for  men  and  for  nations 
— to  be  grateful,  to  be  faithful  to  all  engagements  under 
all  circumstances,  to  be  open  and  generous,  promoting 
in  the  long  run  even  the  interests  of  both;  and  I  am  sure 
it  promotes  their  happiness. 
8.  17. 

IT  is  impossible  that  the  world  should  long  continue  in- 
sensible to  so  evident  a  truth  as  that  the  right  to  have 
commerce  and  intercourse  with  our  neighbors  is  a  nat- 
ural right.     To  suppress  this  neighborly  intercourse  is  an 
exercise  of  force,  which  we  shall  have  a  just  right  to  re- 
8.  29.        move,  when  the  superior  force. 

NEVER  was  there  a  country    (France)    where  the 
practice  of  governing  too  much  had  taken  deeper 
root  and  done  more  mischief.    To  say  in  excuse  that 
gratitude  is  never  to  enter  into  the  motives  of  National 
conduct,  is  to  revive  a  principle  which  has  been  buried  for 
centuries  with  its  kindred  principles  of  the  lawful- 
7.  445.     ness  of  assassination,  poison,  perjury,  etc.    All  of 
these  were  legitimate  principles  in  the  dark  ages 
which  intervened  between  ancient  and  modern  civilization, 


145 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

but  exploded  and  held  in  just  horror  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. I  'know  but  one  code  of  morality  for  men,  whether 
acting  singly  or  collectively.  He  who  says  I  will  be  a  rogue 
when  I  act  in  company  with  a  hundred  others,  but  an  honest 
man  when  I  act  alone,  will  be  believed  in  the  former  asser- 
tion, but  not  in  the  latter. 


THE  politics  of  Europe  render  it  indispensably  neces- 
sary that,  with  respect  to  everything  external,  we  be 
one  nation  only,  firmly  hooped  together.  Interior 
government  is  what  each  State  should  keep  to  itself.  If  it 
were  seen  in  Europe  that  all  our  States  could  be  brought  to 
concur  in  what  the  Virginia  Assembly  has  done,  it 
5.  278.  would  produce  a  total  revolution  in  their  opinion 
of  us,  and  respect  for  us.  And  it  should  ever  be 
held  in  mind,  that  insult  and  war  are  the  result  of  want  of 
respectability  in  the  National  character.  As  long  as  the 
States  exercise,  separately,  those  acts  of  power  which  re- 
spect foreign  nations,  so  long  will  there  continue  to  be 
irregularities  committed  by  some  one  or  other  of  them,  which 
will  constantly  keep  us  on  an  ill  footing  with  foreign  nations. 
.  .  .  I  am  persuaded  that  a  gift  of  lands  by  the  State  of 
Virginia  to  the  Marquis  De  La  Fayette  would  give  a  good 
opinion  here  (Paris)  of  our  character,  and  would  reflect 
honor  on  the  Marquis.  Nor  am  I  sure  that  the  day  will  not 
come  when  it  will  be  an  useful  asylum  to  him.  The  time  of 
life  at  which  he  visited  America  was  too  well  adapted  to 
receive  good  and  lasting  impressions  to  permit  him  ever  to 
accommodate  himself  to  the  principles  of  monarchical  gov- 
ernment; and  it  will  need  all  his  own  prudence,  and  that  of 
his  friends,  to  make  this  country  a  safe  residence  for  him. 
How  glorious,  how  comfortable  in  reflection  it  will  be  to 
have  prepared  a  refuge  for  him  in  case  of  reverse. 

146 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

44"\  TT  T"HETHER  it  would  be  useful  to  us  to  carry  all 

\/\/     our  own  productions  or  none?"      Were  we 

perfectly  free  to  decide  this  question,  I  should 

reason  as  follows :    We  have  now  lands  enough  to  employ  an 

infinite  number  of  people  in  their  cultivation.    Cultivators  of 

the  earth  are  the  most  valuable  citizens.    They  are 
5.  93.       the  most  vigorous,  the  most  independent,  the  most 

virtuous,  and  they  are  tied  to  their  country,  and 
wedded  to  its  liberty  and  interests,  by  the  most  lasting  bonds. 
As  long,  therefore,  as  they  can  find  employment  in  this  line, 
I  would  not  convert  them  into  mariners,  artisans,  or  any- 
thing else.  But  our  citizens  will  find  employment  in  this  line 
till  their  numbers,  and  of  course  their  productions,  become 
too  great  for  the  demand,  both  internal  and  foreign.  This 
is  not  the  case  as  yet,  and  probably  will  not  be  for  a  consid- 
erable time.  As  soon  as  it  is,  the  surplus  of  hands  must  be 
turned  to  something  else.  I  should  then,  perhaps,  wish  to 
turn  them  to  the  sea  in  preference  to  manufactures ;  because 
comparing  the  characters  of  the  two  classes,  I  find  the  for- 
mer the  most  valuable  citizens.  I  consider  the  class  of  arti- 
ficers as  the  panders  of  vice,  and  the  instruments  by  which 
the  liberties  of  a  country  are  generally  overturned.  How- 
ever, we  are  not  free  to  decide  this  question  on  principles  of 
theory  only.  Our  people  are  decided  in  the  opinion  that  it 
is  necessary  for  us  to  take  a  share  in  the  occupation  of  the 
ocean,  and  their  established  habits  induce  them  to  require 
that  the  sea  be  kept  open  to  them,  and  that  that  line  of 
policy  be  pursued,  which  will  render  the  use  of  that  element 
to  them  as  great  as  possible.  I  think  it  a  duty  in  those  en- 
trusted with  the  administration  of  their  affairs  to  conform 
themselves  to  the  decided  choice  of  their  constituents;  and 
that,  therefore,  we  should  in  every  instance  preserve  an 
equality  of  right  to  them  in  the  transportation  of  commo- 
dities, in  the  right  of  fishing,  and  in  the  other  uses  of  the 


147 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

sea.  But  what  will  be  the  consequence?  Frequent  wars 
without  a  doubt.  Their  property  will  be  violated  on  the  sea, 
and  in  foreign  parts,  their  persons  will  be  insulted,  im- 
prisoned, etc.,  for  pretended  debts,  contracts,  crimes,  contra- 
band, etc.,  etc.  These  insults  must  be  resented,  even  if  we 
had  no  feelings,  yet  to  prevent  their  eternal  repetition;  or, 
in  other  words,  our  commerce  on  the  ocean  and  in  other 
countries,  must  be  paid  for  by  frequent  war.  The  justest 
dispositions  possible  in  ourselves  will  not  secure  us  against 
it.  It  would  be  necessary  that  all  other  nations  be  just  also. 
Justice,  indeed,  on  our  part,  will  save  us  from  those  wars 
which  would  have  been  produced  by  a  contrary  disposition. 
But  how  can  we  prevent  those  caused  by  the  wrongs  of  other 
nations  ?  By  putting  ourselves  in  a  position  to  punish  them. 
Weakness  provokes  insult  and  injury,  while  a  condition  to 
punish  often  prevents  them.  This  reasoning  leads  to  the 
necessity  of  a  naval  force ;  that  being  the  only  weapon  by 
which  we  can  reach  an  enemy. 


148 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  TARIFF 

I  REJOICE,  as  a  moralist,  at  the  prospect  of  a  reduction 
of  the  duties  on  wine  by  our  national  legislature.    It  is 
an  error  to  view  a  tax  on  that  liquor  as  merely  a  tax 
on  the  rich.     It  is  a  prohibition  of  its  use  to  the  middling 
class  of  our  citizens,  and  a  condemnation  of  them  to  the  poi- 
sons of  whiskey,  which  is  desolating  their  houses. 
15.  179.     No  nation  is  drunken  where  wine  is  cheap;  and 
none  sober  where  the  dearness  of  wine  substitutes 
ardent  spirits  as  the  common  beverage.     It  is  in  truth,  the 
only  antidote  to  the  bane  of  whiskey. 

MY  idea  is  that  we  should  encourage  home  manufac- 
tures to  the  extent  of  our  own  consumption  of 
everything  of  which  we  raise  the  raw  material. 
12.  236. 

I  HAVE  lately  inculcated  the  encouragement  of  manufac- 
tures to  the  extent  of  our  own  consumption  at  least  in 
all  articles  of  which  we  raise  the  raw  material.    The 
Federals  say  the  iron  which  we  make  must  not  be  wrought 
into  ploughs,  axes,  hoes,  etc.,  in  order  that  the  ship  owners 
may  have  the  profit  of  carrying  it  to  Europe,  and 
12.  237.     bringing  it  back  in  a  manufactured  form.     .     .     . 
yet  this  absurd  hue  and  cry  has  done  much  to 
federalize  New  England,  their  doctrine  goes  to  the  sacrificing 
agriculture  and  manufacture  to  commerce;  to  the  calling  of 
our  people  from  the  interior  country  to  the  seashore  to  turn 
merchants,  and  to  convert  this  great  agricultural  country  into 
a  city  of  Amsterdam.     But  I  trust  the  good  sense  of  this 

149 


country  will  see  that  its  greatest  prosperity  depends  on  a  due 
balance  between  agriculture,  manufactures  and  commerce, 
and  not  in  this  protuberant  navigation  which  has  kept  us  in 
hot  water  from  the  commencement  of  our  government,  and 
is  now  engaging  us  in  war.  That  this  may  be  avoided  with- 
out the  surrender  of  right  is  my  sincere  prayer. 

YOU  tell  me  I  am  quoted  by  those  who  wish  to  con- 
tinue our  dependence  on  England  for  manufactures. 
There  was  a  time  when  I  might  have  been  so  quoted 
with  more  candor,  but  within  the  thirty  years  which  have 
since  elapsed  how  circumstances  have  changed !  We  were 
then  in  peace.  Our  independent  place  among  na- 
14.  389.  tions  was  acknowledged.  A  commerce  which  of- 
fered the  raw  material  in  exchange  for  the  same 
material  after  receiving  the  last  touch  of  industry,  was 
worthy  of  welcome  to  all  nations.  It  was  expected  that  those 
especially  to  whom  manufacturing  industry  was  important 
would  cherish  the  friendship  of  their  customers  by  every 
favor,  by  every  inducement,  and  particularly  cultivate  their 
peace  by  every  act  of  justice  and  friendship.  Under  this 
prospect  the  question  seemed  legitimate,  whether  with  such 
an  immensity  of  land  unimproved,  courting  the  hand  of  hus- 
bandry, the  industry  of  agriculture  or  manufactures  would 
add  most  to  the  national  wealth?  And  the  doubt  was  en- 
tertained on  this  consideration  chiefly,  that  to  the  labor  of 
the  husbandman  a  vast  addition  is  made  by  the  spontaneous 
energies  of  the  earth  on  which  it  is  employed :  for  one  grain 
of  wheat  committed  to  the  earth  she  renders  twenty,  thirty, 
and  even  fifty  fold,  whereas  to  the  labor  of  the  manufacturer 
nothing  is  added.  Pounds  of  flax,  in  his  hands,  yield,  on  the 
contrary,  but  pennyweights  of  lace.  This  exchange,  too, 
laborious  as  it  may  seem,  what  a  field  did  it  promise  for  the 
occupations  of  the  ocean;  what  a  nursery  for  the  class  of 


150 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

citizens  who  were  to  exercise  and  maintain  our  equal  rights 
on  that  element!  .  .  .  but  who  in  1785  could  foresee 
the  rapid  depravity  which  was  to  render  the  close  of  that 
century  the  disgrace  of  the  history  of  man  ...  we  were 
completely  excluded  from  the  ocean  ...  we  have  ex- 
perienced .  .  .  that  to  be  independent  for  the  comforts 
of  life  we  must  fabricate  them  ourselves.  We  must  now 
place  the  manufacturer  by  the  side  of  the  argriculturist. 
.  .  .  the  former  question  assumes  a  new  form :  shall  we 
make  our  own  comforts  or  go  without  them,  at  the  will  of  a 
foreign  nation?  .  .  .  Experience  has  taught  me  that 
manufactures  are  now  as  necessary  to  our  independence  as 
our  comfort;  and  if  those  who  quote  me  as  of  a  different 
opinion,  will  keep  pace  with  me  in  purchasing  nothing  for- 
eign, where  an  equivalent  of  domestic  fabric  can  be  obtained, 
without  regard  to  difference  of  price,  it  will  not  be  our 
fault  if  we  do  not  soon  have  a  supply  at  home  equal  to  our 
demand. 

SHALL  we  suppress  the  impost  and  give  that  advan- 
tage to  foreign  over  domestic  manufactures?    On  a 
few  articles  of  more  general  and  necessary  use  the 
suppression  in  due  season  will  doubtless  be  right,  but  the 
great  mass  of  the  articles  on  which  impost  is  paid  is  foreign 
luxuries,  purchased  by  those  only  who  are  rich 
3.  423.     enough  to  afford  themselves    the    use    of   them. 
Their  patriotism  would  certainly  prefer  its  con- 
tinuance and  application  to  the  great  purposes  of  the  public 
education,  roads,  rivers,  canals,  and  such  other  objects  of 
public  improvement,  as  it  may  be  thought  proper  to  add  to 
the  constitutional  enumeration  of  federal  powers.    By  these 
operations  new  channels  of  communication  will  be  opened 
between  the  States;  the  lines  of  separation  will  disappear, 
their  interests  will  be  identified,  and  their  Union  cemented 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

by  indissoluble  ties.  ...  I  suppose  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  necessary,  by  consent  of  the  States,  because 
the  objects  now  recommended  are  not  among  those  enu- 
merated in  the  Constitution,  and  to  which  it  permits  the 
public  moneys  to  be  applied. 


AGRICULTURE,  manufactures,  commerce,  and  navi- 
gation, the  four  pillars  of  our  prosperity,  are  the 
most  thriving  when  left  most  free  to  individual  en- 
terprise.   Protection  from  casual  embarrassments,  however, 
may  sometimes  be  interposed. 

3-  337- 


THE  revenue  on  the  consumption  of  foreign  articles 
is  paid  cheerfully  by  those  who  can  afford  to  add 
foreign  luxuries  to  domestic  comforts,  being  col- 
lected on  our  seaboards  and  frontiers  only,  and  incorporated 
with  the  transactions  of  our  merchants,  it  may  be  the  pleas- 
ure and  pride  of  an  American  to  ask,  what  farmer, 
3-  377-    what   mechanic,   what  laborer   ever   sees   a   tax 
gatherer  of  the  United  States?    These  contribu- 
tions enable  us  to  support  the  current  expenses  of  the  gov- 
ernment, to  fulfill  contracts  with  foreign  nations,  to  extin- 
guish the  native  right  to  the  soil  within  our  own  limits,  to 
extend  those  limits,  and  to  apply  such  a  surplus  to  our  public 
debts,  as  places  at  a  short  day  their  final  redemption,  and  that 
redemption  once  effected,  the  revenue  thereby  liberated  may, 
by  a  just  repartition  among  the  States  and  a  corresponding 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  be  applied  in  time  of  peace 
to  rivers,  canals,  roads,  arts,  manufactures,  education,  and 
other  great  objects  within  each  State. 


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MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  following  principles,  being  founded  in  reciproc- 
ity, appear  perfectly  just,  and  to  offer  no  cause  of 
complaint  to  any  nation : 

i.  Where  a  nation  imposes  high  duties  on  our  produc- 
tions, or  prohibits  them  altogether,  it  may  be  proper  for  us 
to  do  the  same  by  theirs;  first  burdening  or  ex- 
3.  278.  eluding  those  productions  which  they  bring  here, 
in  competition  with  our  own  of  the  same  kind, 
selecting  next  such  manufactures  as  we  take  from  them  in 
greatest  quantity,  and  which,  at  the  same  time,  we  could  the 
soonest  furnish  to  ourselves,  or  obtain  from  other  countries ; 
imposing  on  them  duties  lighter  at  first,  but  heavier  and 
heavier  afterwards  as  other  channels  of  supply  open.  Such 
duties  having  the  effect  of  indirect  encouragement  to  do- 
mestic manufactures  of  the  same  kind,  may  induce  the 
manufacturer  to  come  himself  into  these  states,  where 
cheaper  subsistence,  equal  laws,  and  a  vent  of  his  wares, 
free  of  duty,  may  insure  him  the  highest  profits  from  his 
skill  and  industry. 

HAVE  you  considered  all  the  consequences  of  your 
proposition  respecting  post  roads?     I  view  it  as  a 
source  of  boundless  patronage  to  the  executive,  job- 
bing to  members  of  congress  and  their  friends,  and  a  bot- 
tomless abyss  of  public  money.     You  will  begin  by  only 
appropriating  the  surplus  of  the  post  office  reve- 
9.  324.     nues ;  but  the  other  revenues  will  soon  be  called  to 
their  aid,  and    it    will    be    a    source  of  eternal 
scramble  among  the  members,  who  can  get  the  most  money 
wasted  in  their  State;  and  they  will  always  get  most  who 
are  meanest.    We  have  thought,  hitherto,  that  the  roads  of  a 
State  could  not  so  well  be  administered  even  by  our  State 
legislature  as  by  the  magistracy  of  the  county,  on  the  spot. 
How  will  they  be  when  a  member  from  New  Hampshire  is 

153 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

to  mark  out  a  road  for  Georgia  ?  Does  the  power  to  estab- 
lish post  roads,  given  you  by  the  Constitution,  mean  that  you 
should  MAKE  the  roads,  or  only  select  from  those  already 
made  those  on  which  there  shall  be  a  post?  If  the  term  be 
equivocal  (and  I  really  do  not  think  so),  which  is  the  safest 
construction?  that  which  permits  a  majority  of  Congress  to 
go  to  cutting  down  mountains  and  bridging  rivers,  or  the 
other,  which  if  too  restricted  may  be  referred  to  the  States 
for  amendment,  securing  due  measures  and  proportion 
among  us,  and  providing  some  means  of  information  to  the 
members  of  Congress  tantamount  to  that  ocular  inspection, 
which,  even  in  our  county  determinations,  the  magistrate 
finds  cannot  be  supplied  by  other  evidence?  The  fortifica- 
tion of  harbors  was  liable  to  some  objection,  but  national 
circumstances  furnished  color.  In  this  case  there  is  none. 


154 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THEORIES  OF  GOVERNMENT 

THE  property  of  this  country  (France)  is  absolutely 
concentrated  in  a  few  hands,  having  revenues  of 
from  half  a  million  guineas  a  year  downward.  These 
employ  the  flower  of  the  country  as  servants,  some  of  them 
having  as  many  as  200  domestics,  not  laboring.  They  em- 
ploy also  a  great  number  of  manufacturers  and 
19.  17.  tradesmen,  and  lastly  the  class  of  laboring  hus- 
bandman. But  after  all  there  comes  the  most  nu- 
merous of  all  classes,  that  is  the  poor  who  cannot  find  work. 
I  asked  myself  what  could  be  the  reason  so  many  should  be 
permitted  to  beg  who  are  willing  to  work  in  a  country  where 
there  is  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  uncultivated 
lands  ?  These  lands  are  disturbed  only  for  the  sake  of  game. 
It  would  seem  then  that  it  must  be  because  of  the  tremen- 
dous wealth  of  the  proprietors  which  puts  them  above  atten- 
tion to  the  increase  of  their  revenues  by  permitting  these 
lands  to  be  labored.  I  am  conscious  that  an  equal  division 
of  property  is  impracticable,  but  the  consequences  of  this 
enormous  inequality  producing  so  much  misery  to  the  bulk 
of  mankind,  legislators  cannot  invent  too  many  devices  for 
subdividing  property,  only  taking  care  to  let  their  subdivi- 
sions go  hand  in  hand  with  the  affections  of  the  human  mind. 
The  descent  of  property  of  every  kind  therefore  to  all  the 
children,  or  to  all  the  brothers  and  sisters,  or  other  relations 
in  equal  degree,  is  a  politic  measure  and  a  practicable  one. 
Another  means  of  silently  lessening  the  inequality  of  prop- 
erty is  to  exempt  all  from  taxation  below  a  certain  point,  and 
to  tax  the  higher  portions  of  property  in  geometrical  pro- 
gression as  they  rise.  Whenever  there  are  in  any  country 
uncultivated  lands  and  unemployed  poor  it  is  clear  that  the 


155 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

laws  of  property  have  been  so  far  extended  as  to  violate 
natural  right.  The  earth  is  given  as  a  common  stock  for 
man  to  labor  and  live  on.  If  for  the  encouragement  of  in- 
dustry we  allow  it  to  be  appropriated,  we  must  take  care 
that  other  employment  be  provided  to  those  excluded  from 
the  appropriation.  If  we  do  not,  the  fundamental  right  to 
labor  the  earth  returns  to  the  unemployed.  It  is  too  soon 
yet  in  our  country  to  say  that  every  man  who  cannot  find 
employment,  but  who  can  find  uncultivated  land,  shall  be  at 
liberty  to  cultivate  it,  paying  a  moderate  rent.  But  it  is  not 
too  soon  to  provide  by  every  possible  means  that  as  few  as 
possible  shall  be  without  a  little  portion  of  land.  The  small 
landholders  are  the  most  precious  part  of  the  State. 

THE  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  these  countries  I  have 
regarded  with  the  commiseration  their  history  in- 
spires.   Endowed  with  the  faculties  and  the  rights 
of  men,  breathing  an  ardent  love  of  liberty  and  independ- 
ence, and  occupying  a  country,  which  left  them  no  desire 
but  to  be  undisturbed,  the  stream  of  overflowing 
3.  378.     population  from  other  regions  directed  itself  on 
these  shores ;  without  power  to  divert,  or  habits  to 
contend  against,  they  have  been  overwhelmed  with  the  cur- 
rent, or  driven  before  it;  now  reduced  within  limits  too  nar- 
row for  the  hunter's  state,  humanity  enjoins  us  to  teach 
them  agriculture  and  the  domestic  arts ;  to  encourage  them  to 
that  industry  which  alone  can  enable  them  to  maintain  their 
place  in  existence,  and  to  prepare  them  in  time  for  that 
state  of  society  which  to  bodily  comforts  adds  the  improve- 
ment of  the  mind  and  the  morals. 

ARE  there  no  inconveniences  to  be  thrown  into  the 
scale  against  the  advantage  expected  from  a  multi- 
plication of  numbers  by  the  importation  of  foreign- 
ers?   It  is  for  the  happiness  of  those  united  in  society  to 

156 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

harmonize  as  much  as  possible  in  matters  which  they  must 
of  necessity  transact  together.  Civil  government 
2.  1 20.  being  the  sole  object  of  forming  societies,  its  ad- 
ministration must  be  conducted  by  common  con- 
sent. Every  species  of  government  has  its  specific  principles. 
Ours  are  perhaps  more  peculiar  than  any  other  in  the  uni- 
verse. It  is  a  composition  of  the  freest  principles  of  the 
English  Constitution,  with  others  derived  from  natural  right 
and  reason.  To  these  nothing  can  be  more  opposed  than  the 
maxims  of  absolute  monarchies.  Yet  from  such  we  are  to 
expect  the  greatest  number  of  emigrants.  They  will  bring 
with  them  the  principles  of  the  governments  they  leave,  im- 
bibed in  their  early  youth;  or,  if  able  to  throw  them  off,  it 
will  be  in  exchange  for  unbounded  licentiousness,  passing  as 
is  usual  from  one  extreme  to  another.  It  would  be  a  miracle 
if  they  were  to  stop  precisely  at  the  point  of  temperate  lib- 
erty. These  principles  with  their  language  they  will  transmit 
to  their  children.  In  proportion  to  their  numbers  they  will 
share  with  us  the  legislation.  They  will  infuse  into  it  their 
spirit,  warp  and  bias  its  directions.  .  .  .  Is  it  not  safer 
to  wait  with  patience  27  years  3  months  longer  for  the  at- 
tainment of  any  degree  of  population  desired  or  expected? 
May  not  our  government  be  more  homogeneous,  more  peace- 
able, more  durable? 

IT  is  said  that  they  possess  the  means  of  defence,  and 
that  we  do  not.   How  so,  are  we  not  men?    Yes,  but 
our  men  are  so  happy  at  home  that  they  will  not  hire 
themselves  to  be  shot  at  for  a  shilling  a  day.    Hence  we  can 
have  no  standing  armies  for  defence,  because  we  have  no 
paupers  to  furnish  the  materials.    The  Greeks  and 
14.  184.     Romans  had  no  standing  armies,  yet  they  defend- 
ed themselves.     The  Greeks  by  their  laws,  and 
the  Romans  by  the  spirit  of  their  people,  took  care  to  put 

157 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

into  the  hands  of  their  rulers  no  such  engine  of  oppression 
as  a  standing  army.  Their  system  was  to  make  every  man 
a  soldier,  and  oblige  him  to  repair  to  the  standard  of  his 
country  whenever  that  was  reared.  This  made  them  invin- 
cible ;  and  the  same  remedy  will  make  us  so. 

EVERY  society  has  a  right  to  fix  the  fundamental 
principles  of  its  association,  and  to  say  to  all  indi- 
viduals that  if  they  contemplate  pursuits  beyond  the 
limits  of  those  principles,  and  involving  dangers  which  the 
society  chooses  to  avoid,  they  must  go  somewhere 
15.  28.  else  for  their  exercise;  that  we  want  no  psuedo 
citizens  on  such  terms.  We  may  exclude  them 
from  our  territory  as  we  do  persons  afflicted  with  disease. 
Such  is  the  situation  of  our  country.  We  have  most  abun- 
dant resources  of  happiness  within  ourselves,  which  we  may 
enjoy  in  peace  and  safety,  without  permitting  a  few  citizens, 
infected  with  the  mania  for  rambling  and  gambling,  to  bring 
danger  on  the  great  mass  engaged  in  innocent  and  safe  pur- 
suits at  home.  .  .  .  We  are  to  choose  (between)  :  i. 
Licentious  commerce  and  gambling  speculations  for  a  few, 
with  eternal  war  for  the  many;  or,  2,  restricted  commerce, 
peace  and  steady  occupations  for  all.  .  .  .  No  earthly 
consideration  could  induce  my  consent  to  contract  such  a 
debt  as  England  has  by  her  wars  for  Commerce,  to  reduce 
our  citizens  by  taxes  to  such  wretchedness.  .  .  .  And 
all  this  to  feed  the  avidity  of  a  few  milionary  merchants,  and 
to  keep  up  one  thousand  ships  of  war  for  the  protection  of 
our  commercial  speculations.  .  .  . 

THAT  our  Creator  made  the  earth  for  the  use  of  the 
living  and  not  of  the  dead ;  that  those  who  exist  not 
can  have  no  power  over,  use,  nor  right  in  it,  that  one 
generation  cannot  foreclose  or  burden  its  use  upon  another, 

158 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

which  comes  to  its  own  right  and  by  the  same  beneficence. 
That  a  preceding  generation  cannot  bind  a  suc- 

15.  470.     ceeding  one  by  its  laws  or  contracts;  these  deriv- 

ing their  obligation  from  the  will  of  the  existing 
majority,  and  that  majority  being  removed  by  death,  an- 
other comes  in  its  place  with  a  will  equally  free  to  make  its 
own  laws  and  contracts;  these  are  axioms  so  self-evident 
that  no  explanation  can  make  them  plainer ;  for  he  is  not  to 
be  reasoned  with  who  says  that  non-existence  can  control 
existence,  or  that  nothing  can  move  something.  They  are 
axioms  also  pregnant  with  salutary  consequences.  .  .  . 
The  laws  of  civil  society  indeed  for  the  encouragement  of 
industry,  give  the  property  of  the  parent  to  his  family  on  his 
death,  and  in  most  civilized  countries  permit  him  even  to 
give  it,  by  testament,  to  whom  he  pleases.  And  it  is  also 
found  more  convenient  to  suffer  the  laws  of  our  predeces- 
sors to  stand  on  our  implied  assent,  as  if  positively  re- 
enacted,  until  the  existing  majority  positively  repeals  them. 
But  this  does  not  lessen  the  right  of  that  majority  to  repeal 
whenever  a  change  of  circumstances  or  of  will  calls  for  it. 
Habit  alone  confounds  what  is  civil  practice  with  natural 
right. 

THE  three  great  questions  of  amendment  now  before 
you.     I  mean,   ist,  the  limitation  of  the  term  of 
Presidential  service;  2nd,  the  placing  of  the  choice 
of  the  President  effectually  in  the  hands  of  the  people ;  3rd, 
the  giving  to  Congress  the  power  of  internal  improvement, 
on  condition  that  each  State's  federal  proportion 

1 6.  14.       of  the  moneys  so  expended  shall  be  employed 

within  that  State.  The  friends  of  Consolidation 
would  rather  take  these  powers  by  construction  than  accept 
them  by  direct  investiture  from  the  States.  Yet  as  to  inter- 
nal improvement  particularly,  there  is  probably  not  a  State 


159 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

in  the  Union  which  would  not  grant  the  power  on  the  con- 
dition named,  or  which  would  grant  it  without  that.  .  .  . 
The  real  friends  of  the  Constitution  in  its  federal  form,  if 
they  wish  it  to  be  immortal,  should  be  attentive,  by  amend- 
ments, to  make  it  keep  pace  with  the  advance  of  the  age,  in 
science  and  experience.  Instead  of  this  the  European  gov- 
ernments have  resisted  reformation,  until  the  people  seeing 
no  other  resource,  undertake  it  themselves,  by  force,  their 
only  weapon,  and  work  it  out  through  blood,  desolation  and 
long  continued  anarchy.  Here  it  will  be  by  large  fragments 
dropping  off  and  refusing  reunion,  but  on  condition  of 
amendment,  or  perhaps  permanently.  If  I  can  see  these 
three  great  amendments  prevail,  I  shall  consider  it  as  a  re- 
newed extension  of  our  lease,  shall  live  in  more  confidence 
and  die  in  more  hope. 

HE  who  receives  an  idea  from  me,  receives  instruction 
himself  without  lessening  mine;  as  he  who  lights 
his  taper  at  mine  receives  light  without  darkening 
me.    That  ideas  should  freely  spread  from  one  to  another 
over  the  globe,  for  the  moral  and  mutual  instruction  of  man, 
and  improvement  of  his  condition,  seems  to  have 
I3-  334-     been  peculiarly  and  benevolently  designed  by  na- 
ture, when  she  made  them,  like  fire,  expansible 
over  space,  without  lessening  their  density  in  any  point,  and 
like  the  air  in  which  we  breathe,  move  and  have  our  physical 
being,  incapable  of  confinement  or  exclusive  appropriation. 
Inventions  then  cannot  in  nature  be  a  subject  of  property. 
Society  may  give  an  exclusive  right  to  the  profits  arising 
from  them,  as  an  encouragement  to  men  to  pursue  ideas 
which  may  produce  utility,  but  this  may  or  may  not  be  done, 
according  to  the  will  and  convenience  of  society,  without 
claim  or  complaint  from  anybody.     .     .     .     Other  nations 
have  thought  that  these  monopolies  produce  more  embar- 

160 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

rassment  than  advantage  to  society ;  and  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  nations  which  refuse  monopolies  of  invention  are  as 
fruitful  as  England  in  new  and  useful  devices. 

IT  is  a  wise  rule,  and  should  be  fundamental  in  a  govern- 
ment disposed  to  cherish  its  credit,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  restrain  the  use  of  it  within  the  limits  of  its  faculties. 
Never  to  borrow  a  dollar  without  laying  a  tax  in  the  same 
instant  for  paying  the  interest  annually,  and  the  principal 

within  a  given  term  and  to  consider  the  tax  as 
13.  269.  pledged  to  the  creditors  on  the  public  faith.  .  .  . 

But  the  term  of  redemption  must  be  moderate, 
and  at  any  rate  within  the  limit  of  their  rightful  powers. 
But  what  limits  it  will  be  asked  does  this  prescribe  to  their 
powers  ?  What  is  to  hinder  them  from  creating  a  perpetual 
debt?  The  laws  of  nature  I  answer.  The  earth  belongs  to 
the  living  not  the  dead.  The  will  and  the  power  of  a  man 
expire  with  his  life,  by  nature's  law.  .  .  .  We  may  con- 
sider each  generation  as  a  distinct  nation,  with  a  right  by 
the  will  of  its  majority  to  bind  themselves,  but  none  to  bind 
the  succeeding  generation,  more  than  the  inhabitants  of  an- 
other country  .  .  .  the  period  of  a  generation,  or  the 
term  of  its  life,  is  determined  by  the  laws  of  mortality, 
which,  varying  a  little  in  different  climates,  offer  a  general 
average  to  be  found  by  observation.  I  turn  for  instance  to 
Buffon's  table,  of  twenty-three  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-four  deaths  and  the  ages  at  which  they  happened,  and 
I  find  that  of  the  number  of  all  ages  living  at  one  moment, 
half  will  be  dead  in  twenty- four  years  and  eight  months. 
But  leaving  out  minors,  who  have  not  the  power  of  self-gov- 
ernment, of  the  adults  living  at  one  moment,  a  majority  of 
whom  act  for  the  society,  one-half  will  be  dead  in  18  years 
and  8  months.  At  nineteen  years  from  the  date  of  a  con- 
tract the  majority  of  the  contractors  are  dead,  and  their  con- 

161 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

tract  with  them.  .  .  .  Suppose  .the  majority  (of  the 
State  of  New  York)  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1794  had 
borrowed  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  the  fee  simple  value  of 
the  State,  and  to  have  consumed  it  in  eating,  drinking,  and 
making  merry  in  their  day;  or  if  you  please  in  quarreling 
and  fighting  with  their  unoffending  neighbors.  Within  18^ 
years  one-half  the  adult  citizens  were  dead.  Till  then  being 
the  majority,  they  might  rightfully  levy  the  interest  of  their 
debt  on  themselves  and  their  fellow  revellers  or  champions. 
But  at  that  moment  a  new  majority  .  .  .  have  come 
into  place,  in  their  own  right,  and  not  under  the  rights,  the 
conditions,  or  laws  of  their  predecessors.  .  .  .  Are  they 
bound  to  acknowledge  the  debt  ?  .  .  .  every  one  will  say 
no  ...  that  the  soil  is  the  gift  of  God  to  the  living,  as 
much  as  it  had  been  to  the  deceased  generation,  and  the 
laws  of  nature  impose  no  obligation  upon  them  to  pay  the 
debt. 

And  although  like  some  other  natural  rights,  this  has  not 
yet  entered  into  any  declaration  of  rights,  it  is  no  less  a  law, 
and  ought  to  be  acted  on  by  honest  governments.  It  is  at 
the  same  time  a  salutary  curb  on  the  spirit  of  war  and  in- 
debtment,  which  since  the  modern  theory  of  the  perpetuation 
of  debt  has  drenched  the  earth  with  blood  and  crushed  its 

inhabitants   under   burdens   ever   accumulating 

In  seeking  then  for  an  ultimate  term  for  the  redemption  of 
our  debts,  let  us  rally  to  this  principle,  and  provide  for  their 
payment  within  the  term  of  nineteen  years  at  the  farthest. 
.  .  .  The  states  should  be  applied  to,  to  transfer  the  right 
of  issuing  circulating  paper  to  Congress  exclusively  .  .  . 
if  possible  ...  I  believe  that  every  State  .  .  . 
would  do  it  .  .  .  in  time  .  .  .  private  fortunes,  in 
the  present  state  of  our  circulation  are  at  the  mercy  of  those 
self-created  money  lenders,  and  are  prostrated  by  the  floods 
of  nominal  money  with  which  their  avarice  deluges  us. 

162 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I  CONSIDER  the  fortunes  of  our  republic  as  depending, 
in  an  eminent  degree,  on  the  extinguishment  of  the 
public  debt,  before  we  engage  in  any  war ;  because  that 
done,  we  shall  have  revenue  enough  to  improve  our  country 
in  peace  and  defend  it  in  war,  without  recurring  to  new  taxes 
or  loans.     But  if  the  debt  should  once  more  be 
12.  324.     swelled  to  a  formidable  size,  its  entire  discharge 
will  be  despaired  of,  and  we  shall  be  committed 
to  the  English  career  of  debt,  corruption  and  rottenness, 
closing  with  revolution.    The  discharge  of  the  debt,  there- 
fore, is  vital  to  the  destinies  of  our  government. 

THE  nation  will  judge  both  the  offender  and  judges 
for  themselves.    If  a  member  of  the  legislature  or 
the  executive  does  wrong,  the  day  is  never  far  dis- 
tant when  the  people  will  remove  him.    They  will  see  then 
and  amend  the  error  in  their  constitution,  which  makes  any 
branch  (of  the  government)  independent  of  the 
ii.  190.     nation.    They  will  see  that  one  of  the  great  co- 
ordinate branches  of  government,  setting  itself  in 
opposition  to  the  other  two,  and  to  the  common  sense  of  the 
nation,  proclaims  immunity  to  that  class  of  offenders  which 
endeavors  to  overturn  the  Constitution,  and  are  themselves 
protected  in  it  by  the  Constitution  itself ;  for  impeachment  is 
a  farce  which  will  not  be  tried  again. 

CERTAINLY  an  inventor  ought  to  be  allowed  a  right 
to  the  benefit  of  his  invention  for  some  certain  term. 
It  is  equally  certain  it  ought  not  to  be  perpetual ;  for 
to  embarrass  society  with  monopolies  for  every  utensil  ex- 
isting, and  in  all  the  details  of  life,  would  be  more  injurious 
to  them  than  had  the  supposed  inventors  never  ex- 
ii.  200.     isted;  because  the  natural  understanding  of  its 
members  would  naturally  have  suggested  the  same 
things  or  others  just  as  good. 

163 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  question,  whether  one  generation  of  men  has  a 
right  to  bind  another,  seems  never  to  have  been  start- 
ed either  on  this  or  our  side  of  the  water.    Yet  it  is  a 
question    of  such  consequences  as  not  only  to  merit  decision, 
but  place  among  the  fundamental  principles  of  government. 
.  .  .  that  no  such  obligation  can  be  transmitted,  I 
7.  454.     think  very  capable  of  proof;  I  start  out  on  this 
ground  which  I  suppose  to  be  self-evident,  that  the 
earth  belongs  in  usufruct  to  the  living;  that  the  dead  have 
neither  powers  nor  rights  over  it.    The  portion  occupied  by 
an  individual  ceases  to  be'his  when  himself  ceases  to  be,  and 
reverts  to  the  society,  the  child,  the  legatee  or  creditor,  takes 
it,  not  by  natural  right,  but  by  a  law  of  the  society  of  which 
he  is  a  member.  .  .  .  What  is  true  of  every  member  of  society 
is  true  of  them  all  collectively ;  since  the  rights  of  the  whole 
can  be  no  more  than  the  sum  of  the  rights  of  the  individuals 
.  .  .  the  conclusion  then,  is  that  neither  the  representatives  of 
the  nation,  nor  the  whole  nation  itself  assembled,  can  validly 
engage  debts  beyond  what  they  may  pay  in  their  own  time, 
that  is  to  say  within  thirty- four  years  of  the  date  of  the  en- 
gagement.    .     .     .     On  a  similar  ground  it  may  be  proved 
that  no  society  can  make  a  perpetual  constitution,  or  even  a 
perpetual  law.    The  earth  belongs  always  to  the  living  gen- 
eration: they  may  manage  it  then,  and  what  proceeds  from 
it  as  they  please  during  their  usufruct. 

They  are  masters,  too,  of  their  own  persons,  and  con- 
sequently they  may  govern  them  as  they  please.  But  per- 
sons and  property  make  the  sum  of  the  objects  of  govern- 
ment. The  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  their  predecessors 
are  extinguished  then,  in  their  natural  course,  with  those 
who  gave  them  being.  This  could  preserve  this  being  till  it 
ceased  to  be  itself  and  no  longer.  Every  Constitution  then, 
and  every  law,  naturally  expires  at  the  end  of  thirty-four 
years. 

164 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

If  it  be  enforced  longer  it  is  an  act  of  force  and  not  of 
right.  It  may  be  said  that  the  succeeding  generation  exercis- 
ing, in  fact,  the  power  of  repeal,  this  leaves  them  as  free  as 
if  the  constitution  or  law  had  been  expressly  limited  to 
thirty-four  years  only.  In  the  first  place  this  objection  ad- 
mits the  right  in  proposing  an  equivalent.  It  might  be,  in- 
deed, if  every  form  of  government  were  so  perfectly  con- 
trived that  the  will  of  the  majority  could  always  be  obtained 
fairly,  and  without  impediment.  But  this  is  true  of  no  form. 
The  people  cannot  assemble  themselves ;  their  representation 
is  unequal  and  vicious.  Various  checks  are  opposed  to  every 
legislative  proposition.  Factions  get  possession  of  the  pub- 
lic councils,  bribery  corrupts  them,  personal  interests  lead 
them  astray  from  the  general  interests  of  their  constituents ; 
and  other  impediments  arise,  so  as  to  prove  to  every  practical 
man  that  a  law  of  limited  duration  is  much  more  manageable 
than  one  which  needs  repeal. 

THE  error  seems  not  sufficiently  eradicated  that  the 
operations  of  the  mind,  as  well  as  the  acts  of  the 
body,  are  subject  to  the  coercion  of  the  laws.    But 
our  rulers  can  have  no  authority  over  such  natural  rights, 
only  as  we  have  submitted  to  them.    The  rights  of  conscience 
we  never  submitted,  we  could  not  submit.    We  are 
i.  221.     answerable  for  them  to  our  God.    The  legitimate 
powers  of  government  extend  to  such  acts  only 
as  are  injurious  to%  others.     But  it  does  me  no  injury  for 
my  neighbor  to  say  there  are  twenty  gods,  or  no  God.     It 
neither  picks  my  pocket  nor  breaks  my  leg.     If  it  be  said 
his  testimony  in  a  court  of  justice  cannot  be  relied  on,  reject 
it  then,  and  be  the  stigma  on  him.    Constraint  may  make  him 
worse,  by  making  him  a  hypocrite,  but  it  will  never  make  a 
truer  man.    It  may  fix  him  obstinately  in  his  errors,  but  will 
not  cure  them. 

165 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Reason  and  free  inquiry  are  the  only  effectual  agents 
against  error.  They  are  the  natural  enemies  of  error,  and 
of  error  only.  Had  not  the  Roman  government  permitted 
free  inquiry,  Christianity  could  never  have  been  introduced. 
Had  not  free  inquiry  been  indulged  at  the  era  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, the  corruptions  of  Christianity  could  not  have  been 
purged  away.  .  .  .  Reason  and  experiment  have  been 
indulged  and  error  has  fled  before  them.  It  is  error  alone 
that  needs  the  support  of  government.  Truth  can  stand  by 
itself. 


166 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
DANGERS  TO  THE  REPUBLIC 

ONE  hundred  and  seventy  despots  would  surely  be  as 
oppressive  as  one.  Let  those  who  doubt  it  turn  their 
eyes  upon  the  Republic  of  Venice.  As  little  will  it 
avail  us  that  they  are  chosen  by  ourselves.  An  Elective 
Despotism  was  not  the  government  we  fought  for,  but  one 
which  should  not  only  be  founded  on  free  prin- 
2.  163.  ciples,  but  one  in  which  the  powers  of  government 
should  be  so  divided  and  balanced  among  several 
bodies  of  magistracy  as  that  no  one  could  transcend  their 
legal  limits  without  being  effectually  checked  and  restrained 
by  the  others.  .  .  .  The  legislature  have  accordingly  in 
many  instances  decided  rights  which  should  have  been  left 
to  judiciary  controversy;  and  the  direction  of  the  Executive 
.  .  .  is  becoming  habitual  and  familiar.  And  this  is  done 
with  no  ill  intention.  The  views  of  the  present  members  are 
perfectly  upright.  When  they  are  led  out  of  their  regular 
province,  it  is  through  art  in  others  and  inadvertence  by 
themselves.  And  this  will  probably  be  the  case  for  some  time 
to  come.  But  it  will  not  be  a  very  long  time,  mankind  soon 
learn  to  make  interested  uses  of  every  right  and  power  which 
they  possess  or  may  assume.  .  .  .  With  money  we  will 
get  men,  said  Caesar,  and  with  men  we  will  get  money.  Nor 
should  our  assembly  be  deluded  by  the  integrity  of  their  pur- 
poses, and  conclude  that  these  unlimited  powers  will  never 
be  abused,  because  themselves  are  not  disposed  to  abuse 
them.  They  should  look  forward  to  the  time,  and  that  not  a 
distant  one,  when  a  corruption  in  this,  as  in  the  country  from 
which  we  derive  our  origin,  will  have  seized  the  heads  of 
the  government,  and  be  spread  by  them  through  the  body  of 
the  people ;  when  they  will  purchase  the  votes  of  the  people 

167 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

and  make  them  pay  the  price.  Human  nature  is  the  same  on 
every  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  will  alike  be  influenced  by 
the  same  causes.  The  time  to  guard  against  corruption 
and  tyranny,  is  before  they  shall  have  gotten  hold  of  us. 
It  is  better  to  keep  the  wolf  out  of  the  fold  than  to  trust 
to  drawing  his  teeth  and  claws  after  he  shall  have  entered. 

IT  can  never  be  too  often  repeated  that  the  time  for  fixing 
every  essential  right  on  a  legal  basis  is  while  our  rulers 
are  honest  and  ourselves  united.     From  the  conclusion 
of  this  war  we  shall  be  going  down  hill.    It  will  not  then  be 
necessary  to  resort  every  moment  to  the  people  for  support. 
They  will  be  forgotten  therefore,  and  their  rights 
2.  225.     disregarded.    They  will  forget  themselves,  but  in 
the  sole  faculty  of  making  money,  and  will  never 
think  of  uniting  to  effect  a  due  respect  for  their  rights.    The 
shackles,  therefore,  which  shall    not  be  knocked  off  at  the 
conclusion  of  this  war,  will  remain  on  us  long,  will  be  made 
heavier  and  heavier,  till  our  rights  shall  revive  or  expire  in  a 
convulsion. 

THIS  is  a  sample  of  the  effects  we  may  expect  from 
the  late  mischievous  law  vacating  every  four  years 
nearly  all  the  executive  offices  of  the  government. 
.     .     .     It  saps  the  Constitutional  and  salutary  functions  of 
the  President,  and  introduces  a  principle  of  intrigue  and  cor- 
ruption, which  will  soon  leaven  the  mass,  not  only  of  senators 
but  of  citizens.     It  is  more  baneful  than  the  at- 
15.  294.     tempt  which  failed  in  the  beginning  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  make  all  officers  irremovable  but  with  the 
consent  of  the  Senate.     ...     It  will  keep  in  constant  ex- 
citement all  the  hungry  cormorants  for  office,  render  them,  as 
well  as  those  in  place,  sycophants  to  their  Senators,  engage 

168 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

these  in  eternal  intrigue  to  turn  out  one  and  put  in  another, 
in  cabals  to  swap  work ;  and  make  of  them  what  all  Execu- 
tive directories  become,  mere  sinks  of  corruption  and  faction. 

EVERYTHING  predicted  by  the  enemies  of  banks,  in 
the  beginning,  is  now  coming  to  pass.    We  are  to  be 
ruined  now  by  a  deluge  of  bank  paper,  as  we  were 
formerly  by  the  old  Continental  paper.    It  is  cruel  that  such 
revolutions  in  private  fortunes  should  be  at  the  mercy  of 
avaricious  adventurers,  who  instead  of  employing 
14.  1 6.       their  capital,  if  any  they  have,  in  manufactures, 
commerce,  and  other  useful  pursuits,  make  it  an 
instrument  to  burden  all  the  interchanges  of  property  with 
their  swindling  profits,  profits  which  are  the  price  of  no  use- 
ful industry  of  theirs.    Prudent  men  must  be  on  their  guard 
in  this  game  of  Robin's  alive,  and  take  care  that  the  spark 
does  not  extinguish  in  their  hands.     I  am  an  enemy  to  all 
banks  discounting  bills  or  notes  for  anything  but  coin.    But 
our  whole  country  is  so  fascinated  by  this  Jack  o'  lantern 
wealth,  that  they  will  not  stop  short  of  its  total  and  fatal 
explosion.     (This  took  place  four  years  later.) 

THE  scheme  is  for  Congress  to  incorporate  a  bank 
.     .     .     the  subscribers  may  be  one,  two,  or  three  or 
more  individuals     .     .     .     (many  single  individuals 
being  able  to  pay  in  the  five  millions),  whereupon  this  bank 
oligarchy  or  monarchy  enters  the  field  with  ninety  millions 
of  dollars,  to  direct  and  control  the  politics  of  the 
13.  405.     nation;  and  of  the  influence  of  these  institutions 
on  our  politics,  and  into  what  scale  it  will  be 
thrown  we  have  had  abundant  experience.    Indeed  England 
herself  may  be  the  real  subscriber.     .     .     .     The  truth  is 
that  capital  may  be  produced  by  industry,  and  accumulated 

169 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

by  economy;  but  jugglers  only  will  propose  to  create  it  by 
legerdemain  tricks  with  paper.     .     .     . 

.  .  .  The  overbearing  clamor  of  merchants,  specula- 
tors and  projectors,  will  drive  us  before  them  with  our  eyes 
open,  until,  as  in  France,  under  the  Mississippi  Bubble,  our 
citizens  will  be  overtaken  with  the  crush  of  this  baseless 
fabric,  without  other  satisfaction  than  that  of  execrations  on 
the  heads  of  those  functionaries  who,  from  ignorance,  pusil- 
lanimity or  corruption,  have  betrayed  the  fruits  of  their  in- 
dustry into  the  hands  of  projectors  and  swindlers.  .  .  . 
We  are  already  at  ten  or  twenty  times  the  due  quantity  of 
medium ;  insomuch  that  no  man  knows  what  his  property  is 
now  worth,  because  it  is  bloating  while  he  is  calculating ;  and 
still  less  what  it  will  be  worth  when  the  medium  shall  be  re- 
lieved from  its  present  dropsical  state;  and  that  it  is  a  pal- 
pable fasehood  to  say  that  we  can  have  specie  for  our  paper 
whenever  demanded.  ...  To  the  existence  of  banks  of 
discount  for  cash,  as  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  there  can 
be  no  objection,  because  there  can  be  no  danger  of  abuse, 
and  they  are  a  convenience  both  to  merchants  and  indi- 
viduals. 


170 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XV. 
REPUBLICAN  PRINCIPLES. 

I  DO  not  think  it  for  the  interest  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment itself,  and  still  less  of  the  Union  at  large,  that  the 
State  Governments  should  be  so  little  respected  as  they 
have  been.     However,  I  dare  say  that  in  time  all  these 
as  well  as  their  central  government,  like  the  planets  revolving 
around  their  common  sun,  acting  and  acted  upon 
10.  i.         according   to   their   respective   weights   and  dis- 
tances, will  produce  that  beautiful  equilibrium  on 
which  our  constitution  is  founded,  and  which  I  believe,  it 
will  exhibit  to  the  world  in  a  degree  of  perfection,  unex- 
ampled but  in  the  planetary  system  itself. 

WHAT  more  is  necessary  to  make  us  a  happy  and 
prosperous  people  ?    Still  one  thing  more,  fellow 
citizens — a  wise  and  frugal  government,  which 
shall  restrain  men  from  injuring  one  another,  which  shall 
leave  them  otherwise  free  to  regulate  their  own  pursuits  of 
industry  and  improvement,  and  shall  not  take  from 
3.  320.     the  mouth  of  labor  the  bread  it  has  earned.    This 
is  the  sum  of  good  government,  and  this  is  neces- 
sary to  close  the  circle  of  our  felicities. 

...  About  to  enter,  fellow  citizens,  on  the  exercise  of 
duties  which  comprehend  everything  dear  and  valuable  to 
you,  it  is  proper  that  you  should  understand  what  I  deem 
the  essential  principles  of  our  government,  and  consequently 
those  which  ought  to  shape  its  administration  .  .  .  equal 
and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  of  whatever  state  or  per- 
suasion, religious  or  political;  peace,  commerce,  and  honest 
friendship,  with  all  nations,  entangling  alliances  with  none ; 
the  support  of  the  State  governments  in  all  their  rights,  as 

171 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  most  competent  administrations  for  our  domestic  con- 
cerns and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti-republican  ten- 
dencies; the  preservation  of  the  general  government  in  its 
whole  constitutional  vigor,  as  the  sheet  anchor  of  our  peace 
at  home  and  safety  abroad;  a  jealous  care  of  the  right  of 
election  by  the  people — a  mild  and  safe  corrective  of  abuses 
which  are  lopped  by  the  sword  of  revolution  where  peace- 
able remedies  are  unprovided;  absolute  acquiescence  in  the 
decisions  of  the  majority — the  vital  principle  of  republics, 
from  which  there  is  no  appeal  but  to  force,  the  vital  prin- 
ciple and  immediate  parent  of  despotism;  a  well  disciplined 
militia — our  best  reliance  in  peace  and  for  the  first  moments 
of  war,  till  regulars  may  relieve  them ;  the  supremacy  of  the 
civil  over  the  military  .authority ;  economy  in  the  public  ex- 
pense, that  labor  may  be  lightly  burdened;  the  honest  pay- 
ment of  our  debts  and  sacred  preservation  of  the  public 
faith;  encouragement  of  agriculture,  and  of  commerce,  its 
handmaid ;  the  diffusion  of  information  and  the  arraignment 
of  all  abuses  at  the  bar  of  public  reason;  freedom  of  re- 
ligion ;  freedom  of  the  press ;  freedom  of  person  under  the 
protection  of  the  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by  juries  impar- 
tially selected — these  principles  form  the  bright  constellation 
which  has  gone  before  us,  and  guided  our  steps  through  an 
age  of  revolution  and  reformation.  The  wisdom  of  our  sages 
and  the  blood  of  our  heroes  have  been  devoted  to  their  at- 
tainment. They  should  be  the  creed  of  our  political  faith, 
the  text  of  civil  instruction — the  touchstone  by  which  to  try 
the  services  of  those  we  trust ;  and  should  we  wander  from 
them  in  moments  of  alarm  or  error,  let  us  hasten  to  retrace 
our  steps  and  to  regain  the  road  which  alone  leads  to  peace, 
liberty,  and  safety. 


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MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

IF  the  overgrown  wealth  of  an  individual  be  deemed  dan- 
gerous to  the  State,  the  best  corrective  is  the  law  of 
equal  inheritance  to  all  in  equal  degree;  and  the  better 
as  this  enforces  a  law  of  nature. 
14.  466. 

YOU  love  them  (the  people)  as  infants  whom  you  are 
afraid  to  trust  without  nurses ;  and  I  as  adults  whom 
I   freely  leave  to  self-government.     ...     I  be^ 
lieve  with  you  that  morality,  compassion,  generosity  are  in- 
nate elements  of  the  human  constitution ;     .     .     .     that  jus- 
tice is  the  fundamental  law  of  society;  that  the 
14.  489.     majority,  oppressing  an  individual,  is  guilty  of  a 
crime,  abuses  its  strength,  and  by  acting  on  the 
law  of  the  strongest,  breaks  up  the  foundations  of  society; 
that  action  by  the  citizens  in  person,  in  affairs  within  their 
reach  and  competence,  and  in  all  others  by  representatives, 
chosen  immediately,  and  removable  by  themselves,  consti- 


tutes  the  essence  of  a  republic^/! . . and  that  a  govern- 
ment  by  representation  is  capable  of  extension  over  a  greater 
surface  of  country  than  one  of  any  other  form. 

THE  fact  is  that  at  the  formation  of  our  government 
many  had  formed  their  opinions  on  European  writ- 
ings and  practices,  believing  the  experiences  of  old 
countries,  and  especially  of  England,  abusive  as  it  was,  to  be 
a  safer  guide  than  mere  theory.    The  doctrines  of  Europe 
were  that  men  in  numerous  associations  cannot  be 
15.  440.     restrained  within  the  limits  of  order  and  justice, 
but  by  forces,  physical  and  moral,  wielded  over 
them  by  authorities  independent  of  their  will.    Hence  their 
organization  of  kings,  hereditary  nobles  and  priests.     Still 
further  to  constrain  the  brute  force  of  the  people,  they  deem 
it  necessary  to  keep  them  down  by  hard  labor,  poverty  and 

173 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ignorance,  and  to  take  from  them,  as  from  bees,  so  much  of 
their  earnings,  as  that  unremitting  labor  shall  be  necessary  to 
obtain  a  sufficient  surplus  barely  to  sustain  a  scanty  and  mis- 
erable life.  And  these  earnings  they  apply  to  maintain  their 
privileged  orders  in  splendor  and  idleness,  to  fascinate  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  and  excite  in  them  an  humble  adoration 
and  submission,  as  to  an  order  of  superior  beings.  Although 
few  among  us  had  gone  all  these  lengths  of  opinion,  yet 
many  had  advanced,  some  more,  some  less,  on  the  way.  And 
in  the  convention  which  formed  our  government,  they  in- 
tended to  draw  the  cords  of  power  as  tight  as  they  could 
obtain  them,  to  lessen  the  dependence  of  the  general  function- 
aries on  their  constituents,  to  subject  to  them  those  of  the 
States,  and  to  weaken  their  means  of  maintaining  the  steady 
equilibrium  which  the  majorityof  the  convention  had  deemed 
salutary  for  both  branches,  general  and  local.  To  recover, 
therefore,  in  practice  the  powers  which  the  nation  had  re- 
fused, and  to  warp  to  their  own  uses  those  actually  given, 
was  the  steady  object  of  the  Federal  party.  Ours,  on  the 
contrary,  was  to  maintain  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the 
convention  and  of  the  people  themselves.  We  believed,  with 
them,  that  man  is  a  rational  animal,  endowed  by  nature  with 
rights,  and  with  an  innate  sense  of  justice ;  and  that  he  could 
be  restrained  from  wrong,  and  protected  in  right,  by  moder- 
ate powers,  confided  to  persons  of  their  own  choice,  and  held 
to  their  duties  by  dependence  upon  their  own  will.  We  be- 
lieved that  the  complicated  organization  of  kings,  nobles  and 
priests  was  not  the  wisest  nor  best  to  effect  the  happiness  of 
associated  man ;  that  wisdom  and  virtue  were  not  hereditary ; 
that  the  trappings  of  such  a  machinery,  consumed  by  their 
expense,  those  earnings  of  industry,  they  were  meant  to  pro- 
tect, and  by  the  inequalities  they  produced,  exposed  liberty  to 
sufferance.  We  believed  that  men  enjoying  in  ease  and  se- 
curity the  full  fruits  of  their  own  industry,  enlisted  by  all 


174 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

their  interests  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  habituated  to 
think  for  themselves,  and  to  follow  their  reason  as  a  guide, 
would  be  more  easily  and  safely  governed  than  with  minds 
nourished  in  error  and  vitiated  and  debased,  as  in  Europe, 
by  ignorance,  indigence  and  oppression.  The  cherishment  of 
the  people  then  was  our  principle,  the  fear  and  distrust  of 
them  that  of  the  other  party.  Composed  as  we  were  of  the 
landed  and  laboring  classes  of  the  country,  we  could  not  be 
less  anxious  for  a  government  of  law  and  order  than  were 
the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  the  strongholds  of  federalism. 
.  .  .  I  have  stated  above  that  the  original  objects  of 
the  Federalists  were,  ist,  to  warp  our  government  more  to 
the  form  and  principles  of  monarchy,  and,  2d,  to  weaken  the 
barriers  of  the  State  governments  as  co-ordinate  powers.  In 
the  first  they  have  been  so  completely  foiled  by  the  universal 
spirit  of  the  nation  that  they  have  abandoned  the  enterprise, 
shrunk  from  the  odium  of  their  old  appellation,  taken  to 
themselves  a  participation  of  ours,  and  under  the  pseudo 
republican  mask,  are  now  aiming  at  their  second  object,  and, 
strengthened  by  unsuspecting  recruits  from  our  ranks,  are 
fast  approaching  an  ascendency.  .  .  .  Laws  are  made 
for  men  of  ordinary  understandings,  and  should  therefore  be 
construed  by  the  ordinary  rules  of  common  sense.  Their 
meaning  is  not  to  be  sought  for  in  subtleties,  which  may 
make  anything  mean  everything  or  nothing,  at  pleasure. 
...  I  ask  for  no  straining  of  words  against  the  general 
government,  nor  against  the  States.  I  believe  the  States  can 
best  govern  our  home  concerns,  and  the  general  government 
our  foreign  ones.  .  .  .  You  and  I  may  differ  in  details 
of  minor  consequence,  as  no  two  minds,  more  than  two  faces, 
are  the  same  in  every  feature.  But  our  general  objects  are 
the  same,  to  preserve  the  Republican  form  and  principles  of 
our  Constitution.  .  .  . 


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MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

NO,  my  friend,  the  way  to  have  good  and  safe  govern- 
ment is  not  to  trust  it  all  to  one,  but  to  divide  it 
among  the  many,  distributing  to  every  one  exactly 
the  functions  he  is  competent  to.  Let  the  national  govern- 
ment be  entrusted  with  the  defence  of  the  Nation,  and  its 
foreign  and  federal  relations;  the  state  govern- 
14.  421.  ments  with  the  civil  rights,  laws,  police,  and  ad- 
ministration of  what  concerns  the  State  generally ; 
the  counties  with  the  local  concerns  of  the  counties,  and  each 
ward  direct  the  interests  within  itself.  It  is  by  dividing  and 
subdividing  these  republics  from  the  great  National  one 
down  through  all  its  subordinations,  until  it  ends  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  every  man's  farm  for  himself;  by  placing 
under  every  one  what  his  own  eye  may  superintend,  that  all 
will  be  done  for  the  best.  What  has  destroyed  liberty  and 
the  rights  of  man  in  every  government  which  has  ever  ex- 
isted under  the  sun  ?  The  generalizing  and  concentrating  all 
cares  into  one  body,  no  matter  whether  the  autocrats  of  Rus- 
sia or  France,  or  of  the  aristocrats  of  a  Venetian  senate. 
And  I  do  believe  that  if  the  Almighty  has  not  decreed  that 
man  shall  never  be  free  (and  it  is  a  blasphemy  to  believe  it) 
that  the  secret  will  be  found  to  be  in  the  making  himself  the 
depository  of  the  powers  respecting  himself,  so  far  as  he  is 
competent  to  them,  and  delegating  only  what  is  necessary 
.  .  .  to  higher  and  higher  orders  of  functionaries,  so 
as  to  trust  fewer  and  fewer  powers  in  proportion  as  the  trus- 
tees become  more  and  more  oligarchical.  .  .  .  Where 
every  man  is  a  sharer  in  the  direction  of  his  ward  republic, 
or  of  some  of  the  higher  ones,  and  feels  that  he  is  a  partici- 
pant in  the  government  of  affairs,  not  merely  at  an  election 
one  day  in  the  year,  but  every  day ;  when  there  shall  not  be 
a  man  in  the  State  who  will  not  be  a  member  of  some  one  of 
its  councils,  great  or  small,  he  will  let  the  heart  be  torn  out 
of  his  body  sooner  than  let  his  power  be  wrested  from  him 
by  a  Caesar  or  a  Bonaparte. 

176 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  PRESS 

NO   government  ought   to  be   without  censors;   and 
where  the  press  is  free,  no  one  ever  will.    If  virtu- 
ous it  need  not  fear  the  fair  operation  of  attack  and 
defence.    Nature  has  given  to  man  no  other  means  of  sifting 
out  the  truth,  either  in  religion,  law  or  politics.    I  think  it 
is  as  honorable  to  the  government  neither  to  know 
8.  406.     nor  notice  its  sycophants  or  censors,  as  it  would 
be  undignified  and  criminal  to  pamper  the  former 
and  persecute  the  latter.     .     .     . 

I  HAVE  preserved  through  life  a  resolution,  set  in  a  very 
early  part  of  it,  never  to  write  in  a  public  paper  without 
subscribing  my  name,  and  to  engage  openly  an  adversary 
who  does  not  let  himself  be  seen,  is  staking  all  against  noth- 
ing. 
8.  411. 

HISTORY,  in  general,  only  informs  us  what  bad  gov- 
ernment is.    To  your  request  of  my  opinion  of  the 
manner  a  newspaper  should  be  conducted  so  as  to  be 
most  useful,  I  should  answer,  "by  restraining  it  to  true  facts 
and  sound  principles  only."    Yet  I  fear,  such  a  paper  would 
find  few  subscribers.     .     .     .     It  is  a  melancholy 
n.  223.     truth  that  a  suppression  of  the  press  could  not 
more  completely  deprive  the  nation  of  its  benefits 
than  is  clone  by  its  abandoned  prostitution  to  falsehood. 
Nothing  can  now  be  believed  which  is  seen  in  a  newspaper. 
Truth  itself  becomes  suspicious  by  being  put  into  that  pol- 
luted vehicle.     The  real  extent  of  this  misinformation  is 
known  only  to  those  who  are  in  situations  to  confront  facts 


177 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

within  their  knowledge  with  the  lies  of  the  day.  I  really  look 
with  commiseration  over  the  great  body  of  my  fellow  citi- 
zens, who,  reading  newspapers,  live  and  die  in  the  belief  that 
they  have  known  something  of  what  has  been  passing  on  in 
the  world  in  their  time ;  whereas  the  accounts  they  have  read 
in  newspapers  are  just  as  true  a  history  of  any  other  period 
of  the  world  as  of  the  present,  except  that  the  real  names  of 
the  day  are  affixed  to  their  fables.  General  facts  may  indeed 
be  collected  from  them,  such  as  that  Europe  is  now  at  war, 
that  Bonaparte  has  been  a  successful  warrior,  that  he  has 
subjected  a  great  portion  of  Europe  to  his  will,  etc.,  etc.,  but 
no  details  can  be  relied  upon.  I  will  add  that  the  man  who 
never  looks  into  a  newspaper  is  better  informed  than  he 
who  reads  them;  inasmuch  as  he  who  knows  nothing  is 
nearer  the  truth  than  he  whose  mind  is  filled  with  falsehoods 
and  errors.  He  who  reads  nothing  will  still  learn  the  great 
facts,  and  the  details  are  all  false.  .  .  .  Perhaps  an 
editor  might  begin  a  reformation  in  some  such  way  as  this : 
Divide  his  paper  into  four  chapters,  heading  the  first, 
Truths;  2d,  Probabilities;  3d,  Possibilities;  4,  Lies.  The 
first  chapter  would  be  very  short,  as  it  would  contain  little 
more  than  authentic  papers  and  information  from  such 
sources  as  the  editor  would  be  willing  to  risk  his  reputation 
for  their  truth.  The  second  would  contain  what  from  a  ma- 
ture consideration  of  all  circumstances  his  judgment  should 
conclude  to  be  probably  true.  This,  however,  should  rather 
contain  too  little  than  too  much.  The  third  and  fourth 
should  be  professedly  for  those  readers  who  would  rather 
have  lies  for  their  money  than  the  blank  paper  they  would 
occupy.  Such  an  editor  would  have  to  set  his  face  against 
the  demoralizing  practice  of  feeding  the  public  mind 
habitually  with  slander,  and  the  depravity  of  taste  which 
this  nauseous  ailment  induces.  Defamation  is  becoming 
a  necessity  of  life;  insomuch  that  a  dish  of  tea  in 


178 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

the  morning  or  evening  cannot  be  digested  without  this 

stimulant. 

THE  only  security  for  all  is  in  a  free  press.     The 
force  of  public  opinion  cannot  be  resisted,  when  per- 
mitted freely  to  be  expressed.    The  agitation  it  pro- 
duces must  be  submitted  to.     It  is  necessary  to  keep  the 
waters  pure. 
15.  491. 

DURING  this  administration,  and  in  order  to  disturb 
it,  the  artillery  of  the  press  has  been  levelled  against 
us,  charged  with  whatsoever  its  licentiousness  could 
devise  or  dare.    These  abuses  of  an  institution  so  important 
to  freedom  and  science  are  deeply  to  be  regretted,  inasmuch 
as  they  tend  to  lessen  its  usefulness,  and  to  sap 
3.  380.     its  safety ;   .     .     .  nor  was  it  uninteresting  to  the 
world  that  an  experiment  should  be  fairly  and 
fully  made,  whether  freedom  of  discussion,  unaided  by  pow- 
er, is  not  sufficient  for  the  propagation  and  protection  of 
truth — whether  a  government,  conducting  itself  in  the  true 
spirit  of  its  constitution,  with  zeal  and  purity,  and  doing  no 
act  which  it  would  be  unwilling  the  whole  world  should  wit- 
ness, can  be  written  down  by  falsehood  and  defamation 
.     .     .     he  who  has  time  renders  a  service  to  morals  and 
public  tranquility,  in  reforming  these  abuses  by  the  salutary 
coercions  of  the  law ;  but  the  experiment  is  noted,  to  prove 
that,  since  truth  and  reason  have  maintained  their  ground 
against  false  opinions  in  league  with  false  facts,  the  press, 
confined  to  truth,  needs  no  other  legal  restraint;  the  public 
judgment  will  correct  false  reasonings  and  opinions,  on  a 
full  hearing  of  all  parties ;  and  no  other  definite  line  can  be 
drawn  between  the  inestimable  liberties  of  the  press  and 
its  demoralizing  licentiousness.    If  there  be  still  improprie- 


179 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ties  which  this  rule  would  not  restrain,  its  supplement  must 
be  sought  in  the  censorship  of  public  opinion. 

AS  to  myself,  conscious  that  there  was  not  a  truth  on 
earth  which  I  feared  should  be  known,  I  have  lent 
myself  willingly  as  the  subject  of  a  great  experi- 
ment, which  was  to  prove  that  an  administration,  conduct- 
ing itself  with  fairness,  with  integrity  and  common  under- 
standing, cannot  be  battered  down  even  by  the 
ii.  155.     falsehoods  of  a  licentious  press,  and  consequently 
still  less  by  the  press  as  restrained  within  the  legal 
and  wholesome  limits  of  truth.    This  experiment  was  want- 
ing for  the  world  to  demonstrate  the  falsehood  of  the  pre- 
text that  freedom  of  the  press  is  incompatible  with  orderly 
government.     I  have  never  therefore  even  contradicted  the 
thousands  of  calumnies  so  industriously  propagated  against 
myself.    But  the  fact  being  once  established,  that  the  press 
is  impotent  when  it  abandons  itself  to  falsehood,  I  leave  to 
others  to  restore  it  to  its  strength  by  recalling  it  within  the 
pale  of  truth.    Within  that  it  is  a  noble  institution,  equally 
the  friend  of  science  and  of  civil  liberty. 


THE  greatest  favor  which  can  be  done  me  is  the  com- 
munication of  the  opinions  of  judicious  men,  of  men 
who  do  not  suffer  their  judgments  to  be  biased  by 
either  interests  or  passions. 
II.  159. 

THE  light  which  has  been  shed  on  mankind  by  the  art 
of  printing  has  eminently  changed  the  condition  of 
the  world.     As  yet,  that  light  has  dawned  on  the 
middling  classes  only  of  the  men  of  Europe.     The  kings 

180 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

and  the  rabble,  of  equal  ignorance,  have  not  as  yet  received 
its  rays;  but  it  continues  to  spread,  and  while 
15.  465.  printing  is  preserved  it  can  no  more  recede  than 
the  sun  return  on  his  course.  A  first  attempt  to 
recover  the  right  of  self-government  may  fail,  so  may  a 
second,  a  third.  .  .  .  All  Europe,  Russia  excepted,  has 
caught  the  spirit;  and  all  will  obtain  representative  govern- 
ment, more  or  less  perfect.  This  is  now  well  understood  to 
be  a  necessary  check  on  kings,  whom  they  will  probably 
think  it  more  prudent  to  chain  and  tame  than  to  exter- 
minate. To  attain  all  this,  however,  rivers  of  blood  must 
yet  flow,  and  years  of  desolation  pass  over,  yet  the  object  is 
worth  rivers  of  blood,  and  years  of  desolation.  For  what 
inheritance  so  valuable  can  man  leave  to  his  posterity? 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS 

DEAR  PAGE. — In  the  most  melancholy  fit  that  any 
poor  soul  ever  was,  I  sit  down  to  write  to  you.    Last 
night,  as  merry  as  agreeable  company  and  dancing 
with  Belinda  in  the  Apollo  could  make  me,  I  never  could 
have  thought  the  succeeding  sun  could  have  seen  me  as 
wretched  as  I  now  am !    I  was  prepared  to  say  a 
4.  12.       great  deal:  I  had  dressed  up,  in  my  own  mind, 
such  thoughts  as  occurred  to  me,  in  as  moving  a 
language  as  I  knew  how,  and  expected  to  have  performed 
in  a  tolerably  creditable  manner.     But,  good  Lord !  when  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  venting  them,  a  few  broken  sentences, 
uttered  in  great  disorder  and  interrupted  with  pauses  of  un- 
common length,  were  the  too  visible  marks  of  my  strange 
confusion. 


JOHN  ADAMS     .     .     .     said     .     .     .     Reason,  Justice, 
and  Equity  never  had  weight  enough  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  to  govern  the  councils  of  men.  It  is  interest 
alone  which  does  it,  and  it  is  interest  alone  which  can  be 
trusted.     ...     It  has  been  said  we  are  independent  in- 
dividuals (referring  to  the  colonies)  making  a  bar- 
i.  49.       gain  together.    The  question  is  not  what  we  are 
now,  but  what  we  ought  to  be  when  our  bargain 
is  made.     The  Confederacy  is  to  make  us  one  individual 
only ;  it  is  to  form  us  like  separate  pieces  of  metal,  into  one 
common  mass.    We  shall  no  longer  retain  our  separate  in- 
dividuality, but  become  a  single  individual  as  to  all  questions 
submitted  to  the  confederacy. 

182 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

MR.  MADISON     .     .     .     acquired  a  habit  of  self- 
possession,  which  placed  at  ready  command  the 
rich  resources  of  his  luminous  and  discriminating 
mind,  and  of  his  extensive  information,  and  rendered  him 
the  first  of  every  assembly  afterwards  of  which  he  happened 
to  be  a  member.    Never  wandering  from  his  sub- 
i.  63.       ject  into  vain  declamation,  but  pursuing  it  closely, 
in  language  pure,  classical  and  copious,  soothing 
always  the  feelings  of  his  adversaries  by  civilities  and  soft- 
ness of  expression,  he  rose  to  the  eminent  station  which  he 
held  in  the  great  National  convention  of  1787;  and  in  that 
of  Virginia  which  followed,  he  sustained  the  new  Constitu- 
tion in  all  its  parts,  bearing  off  the  palm  against  the  logic  of 
George  Mason,  and  the  fervid  declamation  of  Patrick  Henry. 

SPEAKING  with  Dr.  Franklin  of  this  singular  dispo- 
sition of  men  to  quarrel  and  divide  themselves  into 
parties,  he  gave  his  sentiments,  as  usual,  by  Apo- 
logue.   He  mentioned  the  Eddystone  Lighthouse  in  the  Brit- 
ish channel,  as  being  built  on  a  rock,  in  the  mid  channel, 
totally  inaccessible  in  winter  from  the  boisterous 
i.  81.       character  of  the  sea  in  that  season;  that,  there- 
fore, for  the  two  keepers  employed  to  keep  up  the 
lights,  all  provisions  for  the  winter  were  necessarily  carried 
to  them  in  autumn,  as  they  could  never  be  visited  again  until 
the  return  of  the  milder  season ;  that  on  the  first  practicable 
day  in  the  spring  a  boat  put  off  to  them  with  fresh  supplies. 
The  boatmen  met  at  the  door  one  of  the  keepers,  and  ac- 
costed him  with  a  "How  goes  it,  friend?"     "Very  well." 
"How   is  your  companion?''     "I   do  not  know."     "Don't 
know?    Is  he  not  here?"    "I  can't  tell."    "Have  you  not 
seen  him  to-day?"    "No."    "When  did  you  see  him ?"    "Not 
since  last  fall."    "You  have  killed  him?"    "Not  I,  indeed." 
They  were  about  to  lay  hold  of  him  as  having  certainly  mur- 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

dered  his  companion ;  but  he  desired  them  to  go  upstairs  and 
examine  for  themselves.  They  went  up  and  there  found  the 
other  keeper.  They  had  quarrelled  it  seems  soon  after  hav- 
ing been  left  there,  had  divided  into  two  parties,  assigned 
the  cares  below  to  one,  and  those  above  to  the  other,  and 
had  neither  seen,  or  spoken  to  one  another  since. 

ON  my  return  from  Holland,  I  found  Paris  as  I  had 
left  it,  still  in  high  fermentation.    .     .     .    Nor  should 
we  wonder  at  this  pressure,  when  we  consider  the 
monstrous  abuses  of  power  under  which  this  people  were 
ground  to  powder;  when  we  pass  in  review  the  weight  of 
their  taxes  and  the  inequality  of  their  distribu- 
i.  127.     tion;  the  oppressions  of  the  tithes,     .     .     .     the 
shackles  on  Commerce  by  Monopolies;  on  indus- 
try by  Guilds  and  Corporations;  on  the  freedom  of  con- 
science, of  thought  and  of  speech ;     .     .     .     the  venality  of 
the  judges  and  their  partialities  to  the  rich;  the  monopoly  of 
the  military  honors  by  the  Noblesse ;  the  enormous  expenses 
of  the  Queen,  the  Princes  and  the  Court ;  the  prodigalities  of 
Pensions ;  and  the  riches,  luxury,  indolence,  and  immorality 
of  the  Clergy.     Surely  under  such  a  mass  of  misrule  and 
oppression,  a  people  might  justly  press  for  a  thorough  re- 
formation, and  might  even  dismount  their  rough  shod  riders, 
and  leave  them  to  walk  on  their  own  legs. 

THE  appeal  to  the  rights  of  man,  which  had  been 
made  in  the  United  States,  was  taken  up  by  France, 
first  of  the  European  Nations.    From  her  the  spirit 
has  spread  over  those  of  the  South.     The  tyrants  of  the 
North  have  allied  indeed  against  it,  but  it  is  irresistible. 
Their  opposition  will  only  multiply  its  millions  of 
6.  158.     human  victims;  their  own  satellites  will  catch  it, 
and  the  condition  of  man  through  the  civilized 

184 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

world,  will  be  finally  and  greatly  ameliorated.  This  is  a 
wonderful  instance  of  great  events  from  small  causes.  So 
inscrutable  is  the  arrangement  of  causes  and  consequences 
in  this  world,  that  a  twopenny  duty  on  tea,  unjustly  imposed 
in  a  sequestered  part  of  it  changes  the  condition  of  all  its 
inhabitants. 


AND  here,  I  cannot  leave  this  great  and  good  country, 
without  expressing  my  sense  of  its  preeminence  of 
character  among  the  Nations  of  the  Earth.    A  more 
benevolent  people  I  have  never  known,  nor  greater  warmth 
and  devotedness  in  their  select  friendships.    Their  kindness 
and  accommodation  to  strangers  is  unparalleled, 
I.  159.     and  the  hospitality  of  Paris  is  beyond  anything  I 
had  conceived  to  be  practicable  in  a  large  City. 
Their  eminence,  too,  in  science,  the  communicative  disposi- 
tions of  their  scientific  men,  the  politeness  of  general  man- 
ners, the  ease  and  vivacity  of  their  conversation,  give  a 
charm  to  their  society,  to  be  found  nowhere  else.    In  a  com- 
parison of  this  with  other  countries  we  have  the  proof  of  pri- 
macy, which  was  given  to  Themistocles,  after  the  battle  of 
Salamis.     Every  General  voted  himself  the  first  reward  of 
valor,  and  the  second  to  Themistocles.    So,  ask  the  travelled 
inhabitant  of  any  nation,  in  what  country  on  earth  you  would 
rather  live  ? — Certainly  in  my  own,  where  are  all  my  friends, 
my  relations  and  the  earliest  and  sweetest  affections  of  my 
life.    Which  would  be  your  second  choice  ?    France. 


I  EXPLAINED  to  him  (Washington)  that    .     .     .    as  to 
himself,  his  presence  was  important;  that  he  was  the 
only  man  in  the  United  States  who  possessed  the  con- 
fidence of  the  whole ;  that  government  was  founded  on  opin- 

185 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

ion  and  confidence,  and  that  the  longer  he  remained,  the 

stronger  would  become  the  habits  of  the  people  in 

i.  317.     submitting  to  the  government,  and  in  thinking  it 

a  thing  to  be  maintained,  that  there  was  no  other 

person  who  would  be  thought  more  than  the  head  of  a  party. 

EDMUND  RANDOLPH  tells  J.  Madison  and  myself 
a  curious  fact  which  he  had  from  Lear.    When  the 
President  (Gen.  Washington)  went  to  New  York, 
he  resisted  for  three  weeks  the  efforts  to  introduce  levees. 
At  length  he  yielded,  and  left  it  to  Humphreys  and  some 
others  to  settle  the  forms.    Accordingly  an  ante- 
i.  333.     chamber  and  presence  room  were  provided,  and 
when  those  who  were  to  pay  their  court  were  as- 
sembled, the  President  set  out,  preceded  by  Humphreys. 
After  passing  through  the  antechamber,  the  door  of  the  in- 
ner room  was  thrown  open,  and  Humphreys  entered  first, 
calling  out  with  a  loud  voice,  "The  President  of  The  United 
States."    The  President  was  so  much  disconcerted  with  it, 
that  he  did  not  recover  from  it  the  whole  time  of  the  Levee, 
and  when  the  company  was  gone,  he  said  to  Humphrey:, 
"Well,  you  have  taken  me  in  once,  but  by  God  you  shall 
never  take  me  in  a  second  time." 

DR.  BROWN  tells  me  he  has  it  from  a  merchant,  that 
during  the  last  winter  the  directors  of  the  bank  or- 
dered the  freest  discounts.    Every  man  could  obtain 
it.    Money  being  so  flush,  the  six  per  cents  were  run  up  to 
21  and  22  shillings.    Then  the  directors  sold  out  their  pri- 
vate stocks.    When  the  discounted  notes  were  be- 
i.  348.     coming  due,  they  stopped  discounts,  and  not  a  dol- 
lar was  to  be  had.    This  reduced  six  per  cents  to 
1 8  shillings ;  then  the  same  directors  bought  in  again. 

186 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  passage  of  the  Potomac  through  the  Blue  Ridge 
is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  stupendous  scenes  in 
nature.  You  stand  on  a  very  high  point  of  land. 
On  your  right  comes  up  the  Shenandoah,  having  ranged 
along  the  foot  of  the  mountain  an  hundred  miles  to  seek  a 
vent.  On  your  left  approaches  the  Potomac,  in 
2.  24.  quest  of  a  passage  also.  In  the  moment  of  their 
junction,  they  rush  together  against  the  mountain, 
rend  it  asunder,  and  pass  off  to  the  sea.  The  first  glance  of 
this  scene  hurries  our  senses  into  the  opinion  that  the  Earth 
has  been  created  in  time,  that  the  mountains  were  formed 
first,  that  the  rivers  began  to  flow  afterwards,  that  in  this 
place  particularly,  they  have  been  dammed  up  by  the  Blue 
Ridge  Mountains,  and  have  formed  an  ocean  which  filled  the 
whole  valley;  that  continuing  to  rise  they  have  at  length 
broken  over  at  this  point  and  have  torn  the  mountain  down 
from  its  summit  to  its  base.  .  .  .  The  piles  of  rock  on 
each  hand,  but  particularly  on  the  Shenandoah,  the  evident 
marks  of  their  disrupture  and  avulsion  from  their  beds  by 
the  most  powerful  forces  of  nature,  corroborate  the  impres- 
sion. But  the  distant  finishing  which  nature  has  given  to 
the  picture,  is  of  a  very  different  character.  It  is  a  true 
contrast  to  the  foreground.  It  is  as  placid  and  delightful 
as  that  is  wild  and  tremendous.  For  the  Mountain  being 
cloven  asunder,  she  presents  to  your  eye,  through  the  cleft, 
a  small  catch  of  smooth  blue  horizon,  at  an  infinite  distance 
in  the  plain  country,  inviting  you  as  it  were,  from  the  tu- 
mult roaring  around  to  pass  through  the  breach  and  par- 
ticipate of  the  calm  below.  Here  the  eye  ultimately  com- 
poses itself ;  and  that  way,  too,  the  road  happens  actually  to 
lead.  .  .  .  This  scene  is  worth  a  voyage  across  the  At- 
lantic. 


187 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THE  Indians'  only  controls  are  their  manners,  and  that 
moral  sense,  of  right  and  wrong,  which,  like  the  sense 
of  tasting  and  feeling  in  every  man,  makes  a  part  of 
his  nature.     An  offence  against  these  is  punished  by  con- 
tempt, by  exclusion  from  society,  or,  where  the  case  is  seri- 
ous, as  that  of  murder,  by  the  individuals  whom  it 
2.  128.     concerns.     Imperfect  as  this  species  of  coercion 
may  seem,  crimes  are  very  rare  among  them;  in- 
somuch that  were  it  made  a  question,  whether  no  law,  as 
among  the  savage  Americans,  or  too  much  law,  as  among 
the  civilized  Europeans,  submits  man  to  the  greatest  evil, 
one  who  has  seen  both  conditions  of  existence  would  pro- 
nounce it  to  be  the  last;  and  that  the  sheep  are  happier  of 
themselves,  than  under  the  care  of  wolves.     It  will  be  said 
that  great  societies  cannot  exist  without  government.    The 
savages  therefore  break  them  into  small  ones. 

SPIRITUOUS  liquors,  the  small  pox,  war,  and  an 
abridgment  of  territory  to  a  people  who  lived  prin- 
cipally on  the  spontaneous  productions  of  nature,  had 
committed  terrible  havoc  among  them,  which  generation,  un- 
der the  obstacles  opposed  to  it  among  them,  was  not  likely 
to  make  good.     That  the  lands  of  this  country 
2.  131.     were  taken  from  them  by  conquest,  is  not  so  gen- 
eral a  truth  as  is  supposed. 

I  AM    much  pleased    with   the   people    of   this    country 
(France).     The  roughness  of  the  human  mind  is  so 
thoroughly  rubbed  off  with  them  that  it  seems  as  if  one 
might  glide  thrugh  a  whole  life  with  them  without  a  jostle. 
Perhaps,  too,  their  manners  may  be  the  best  calculated  for 
happiness  to  a  people  in  their  situation,  but  I  am 
5.  80.       convinced  they  fall  far  short  of  effecting  a  happi- 
ness so  temperate,  so  uniform,  and  so  lasting  as  is 
generally  enjoyed  with  us.     The  domestic  bonds  here  are 

188 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

absolutely  done  away  with,  and  where  can  there  compensa- 
tion be  found?  Perhaps  they  may  catch  some  moments  of 
transport  above  the  level  of  the  ordinary  tranquil  joy  we 
experience,  but  they  are  separated  by  long  intervals,  during 
which  all  the  passions  are  at  sea  without  rudder  or  compass. 
.  .  .  Indeed  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  so  good  a  peo- 
ple, with  so  good  a  King,  so  well  disposed  rulers  in  general, 
so  genial  a  climate,  so  fertile  a  soil,  should  be  rendered  so 
ineffectual  for  producing  human  happiness  by  one  single 
curse — that  of  a  bad  form  of  government.  But  it  is  a  fact, 
in  spite  of  the  mildness  of  their  governors,  the  people  are 
ground  to  powder  by  the  vices  of  the  form  of  government. 
Of  twenty  millions  of  people  supposed  to  be  in  France,  I  am 
convinced  there  are  nineteen  millions  more  wretched,  more 
accursed  in  every  circumstance  of  human  existence  than  the 
most  conspicuously  wretched  individual  in  the  United  States. 

AARON  BURR     .     .     .     found  at  once  that  the  at- 
tachment of  the   western   country  to  the  present 
Union  was  not  to  be  shaken;  that  its  dissolution 
could  not  be  effected  with  the  consent  of  its  inhabitants,  and 
that  his  resources  were  inadequate,  as  yet,  to  effect  it  by 
force. 
3-  43i- 

THE  following  dialogue  took  place  between  my  head 
and  my  heart:     Heart — You  confess  your  follies, 
indeed!  but  still  you  hug  and  cherish  them;  and 
no  reformation  can  be  hoped  where  there  is  no  repentance. 
.     .     .     Heart. — Who,    then,   can    so    softly   bind   up   the 
wound  of  another,  as  he'  who  has  felt  the  same  wound 
himself?     Head. — The  most  effectual  means  of  being  se- 
cure  against   pain   is   to   retire   within   ourselves,   and   to 
suffice    for    our    own    happiness.      Those    which    depend 

189 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

on  ourselves  are  the  only  pleasures  a  wise  man  will 
count  on ;  for  nothing  is  ours,  which  another  man  will  count 
on ;  for  nothing  is  ours  of  which  another  may  deprive  us  of. 
Hence  the  inestimable  value  of  intellectual  pleasures.  Ever 
in  our  power,  always  leading  us  to  something  new,  never 
cloying,  we  ride  serene  and  sublime  above  the  concern  of 
this  mortal  world,  contemplating  truth  and  nature,  matter 
and  motion,  the  laws  which  bind  up  their  existence,  and  that 
Eternal  Being  who  made  and  bound  them  by  those  laws.  Let 
this  be  our  employ.  Leave  the  bustle  and  tumult  of  society 
to  those  who  have  talents  to  occupy  themselves  with  them. 
Friendship  is  but  another  name  for  an  alliance  with  the  fol- 
lies and  misfortunes  of  others.  Our  own  share  of  miseries 
is  sufficient :  why  enter,  then,  as  volunteers  into  those  of  an- 
other? Is  there  so  little  gaul  poured  into  our  own  cup,  that 
we  must  need  help  drink  that  of  our  neighbor?  A  friend 
dies,  or  leaves  us;  we  feel  as  if  a  limb  was  cut  off.  He  is 
sick;  we  must  watch  over  him,  and  participate  of  his  pains. 
His  fortune  is  shipwrecked ;  ours  must  be  laid  under  contri- 
bution. He  loses  a  child,  a  parent,  or  a  partner:  we  must 
mourn  the  loss  as  if  it  were  our  own.  Heart. — And  what 
more  sublime  delight  than  to  mingle  tears  with  one  whom 
the  hand  of  heaven  hath  smitten !  to  watch  over  the  bed  of 
sickness,  and  to  beguile  its  tedious  and  its  painful  moments ! 
to  share  our  bread  with  one  whom  misfortune  has  left  none ! 
this  world  abounds  indeed  with  misery ;  to  lighten  its  burden, 
we  must  divide  it  with  one  another.  But  let  us  now  try  vir- 
tue by  your  mathematical  balance,  and  as  you  have  put  into 
one  scale  the  burthens  of  friendship,  let  me  put  its  comforts 
in  the  other.  When  languishing  then  under  disease,  how 
grateful  is  the  solace  of  our  friends  .  .  .  how  much  are 
we  supported  by  their  encouragements  and  kind  offices ! 
When  heaven  has  taken  from  us  some  object  of  our  love, 
how  sweet  is  it  to  have  a  bosom  whereon  to  recline  our 


190 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

heads,  and  into  which  we  may  pour  the  torrent  of  our  tears ! 
Grief,  with  such  a  comfort,  is  almost  a  luxury.  . 
Assuredly  nobody  will  care  for  him  who  cares  for  nobody. 
But  Friendship  is  precious  not  only  in  the  shade,  but  in  the 
sunshine  of  life,  and  thanks  to  a  benevolent  arrangement  of 
things,  the  greater  part  of  life  is  sunshine. 

Let  the  gloomy  monk,  sequestered  from  the  world,  seek 
unsocial  pleasures  in  the  bottom  of  his  cell !  .  .  .  They 
mistake  for  happiness  the  mere  absence  of  pain.  .  .  . 
When  nature  assigned  us  the  same  habitation,  she  gave  us 
over  it  a  divided  empire.  To  you  she  allotted  the  field  of 
science;  to  me  that  of  morals.  When  the  circle  is  to  be 
squared,  or  the  orbit  of  a  comet  to  be  traced ;  when  the  arch 
of  greatest  strength,  or  the  solid  of  least  resistance,  is  to  be 
investigated,  take  up  the  problem;  it  is  yours;  Nature  has 
given  me  no  cognizance  over  it.  In  like  manner  in  denying 
to  you  the  feeling  of  sympathy,  of  benevolence,  of  gratitude, 
of  justice,  of  love,  of  friendship,  she  has  excluded  you  from 
their  control.  To  these  she  has  adapted  the  mechanism  of 
the  heart.  Morals  were  too  essential  to  the  happiness  of 
man,  to  be  risked  on  the  uncertain  combinations  of  the  head. 
She  laid  their  foundation,  therefore,  in  sentiment,  and  not  in 
science.  .  .  .  When  the  poor  woman  came  to  ask  a 
charity  in  Philadelphia  you  whispered  that  she  looked  like 
a  drunkard,  and  that  half  a  dollar  was  enough  to  give  her  for 
the  alehouse.  Those  who  want  the  dispositions  to  give,  easily 
find  reasons  why  they  ought  not  to  give.  ...  If  our 
country,  when  pressed  with  wrongs  at  the  point  of  a  bayonet, 
had  been  governed  by  its  head  instead  of  its  heart,  where 
should  we  have  been  now  ?  Hanging  on  the  gallows  as  high 
as  Raman's.  You  began  to  calculate,  and  to  compare  wealth 
and  numbers;  we  threw  up  a  few  pulsations  of  our  blood; 
we  supplied  enthusiasm  against  wealth  and  numbers,  we  put 
our  existence  to  the  hazard,  when  the  hazard  seemed  against 


191 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

us,  and  we  saved  our  country,  justifying  at  the  same  time 
the  ways  of  providence,  whose  precept  is,  to  do  always  what 
is  right,  and  leave  the  issue  to  Him.  In  short,  my  friend, 
so  far  as  my  recollection  serves  me,  I  do  not  know  that  I 
ever  did  a  good  thing  on  your  suggestion,  or  a  dirty  one 
without  it.  .  '  .  .  You  say  I  contract  them  (friendships) 
at  random.  ...  I  receive  none  into  my  esteem,  till  I 
know  they  are  worthy  of  it.  Wealth,  title,  office,  are  no 
recommendations  to  my  friendship.  On  the  contrary,  very 
good  qualities  are  necessary  to  make  amends  for  their  hav- 
ing wealth,  title,  and  office. 
5- 


MEN  come  into  business  at  first,  with  visionary  prin- 
ciples.   It  is  practice  alone,  which  can  correct  and 
conform  them  to  the  actual  current  of  affairs. 
7-  39- 

BE  assiduous  in  learning,  take  much  exercise  for  your 
health  and  practice  much  virtue.     Health,  learning 
and  virtue  will  insure  your  happiness.    They  will  give 
you  a  quiet  conscience,  private  esteem  and  public  honor.  Be- 
yond these  we  want  nothing  but  physical  necessaries,  and 
they  are  easily  obtained. 
7.  44. 

THE  future  inhabitants  of  the  Atlantic  and  Mississippi 
States  will  be  our  sons.    We  think  we  see  their  hap- 
piness in  their  Union,  and  we  wish  it.    Events  may 
prove  it  otherwise;  and  if  they  see  their  interest  in  separa- 
tion, why  should  we  take  sides  with  our  Atlantic  rather  than 
our  Mississippi  descendants?    It   is  the  elder  and 
10.  408.     younger  son  differing.    God  bless  them  both,  and 
keep  them  in  Union,  if  it  be  for  their  good,  but 


192 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

separate  them  if  it  be  better.  ...  This  treaty  must  of 
course  be  laid  before  both  houses,  because  both  have  im- 
portant functions  to  perform  respecting  it.  They,  I  presume, 
will  see  their  duty  to  their  country  in  ratifying  and  paying 
for  it,  so  as  to  secure  a  good  which  would  never  again  be  in 
their  power.  But  I  suppose  they  must  then  appeal  to  the 
Nation  for  an  additional  article  to  the  Constitution,  approv- 
ing and  confirming  an  act  which  the  nation  had  not  pre- 
viously authorized.  The  Constitution  has  made  no  provi- 
sion for  our  holding  foreign  territory,  still  less  for  incor- 
porating foreign  nations  into  our  Union.  The  executive,  in 
seizing  the  fleeting  occurrence  which  so  much  advances  the 
good  of  their  country,  has  done  an  act  beyond  the  Constitu- 
tion. The  legislature  .  .  .  risking  themselves  like  faith- 
ful sevants,  must  ratify  and  pay  for  it  (Louisiana  Territory) 
and  throw  themselves  on  their  country  for  doing  for  them 
unauthorized,  what  we  know  they  would  have  done  for 
themselves  had  they  been  in  a  situation  to  do  it.  It  is  the 
case  of  a  guardian,  investing  the  money  of  his  ward  in  the 
purchase  of  an  important  adjacent  territory,  and  saying  to 
him  when  of  age,  I  did  this  for  your  good ;  I  pretend  to  no 
right  to  bind  you :  you  may  disavow  me,  and  I  must  get  out 
of  the  scrape  as  I  can:  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  risk  myself 
for  you.  But  we  shall  not  be  disavowed  by  the  Nation,  and 
their  act  of  indemnity  will  confirm  and  not  weaken  the  Con- 
stitution, by  more  strongly  marking  out  its  lines. 

I  WILL  not  say  that  public  life  is  the  line  for  making  a 
fortune.    But  it  furnishes  a  decent  and  honorable  sup- 
port, and  places  ones  children  on  good  grounds  for  pub- 
lic favor.    The  family  of  a  beloved  father  will  stand  with  the 
public  on  the  most  favorable  ground  of  competition.     Had 
General   Washington   left  children,  what  would 
ii.  424.     have  been  denied  to  them?     Perhaps  I  ought  to 
apologize  for  the  frankness  of  this  communication. 

193 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

It  proceeds  from  an  ardent  zeal  to  see  this  government  (the 
idol  of  my  soul)  continue  in  good  hands. 

HOWEVER  I  have  from  the  beginning  determined  to 
submit  myself  as  the  subject  upon  whom  may  be 
proved  the  impotency  of  a  free  press  in  a  country 
like  ours,  against  those  who  conduct  themselves  honestly  and 
enter  into  no  intrigue.     I  admit  at  the  same  time  that  re- 
straining the  press  to  truth,  as  the  present  laws 
12.  159.     do,  is  the  only  way  of  making  it  useful.     But  I 
have  thought  it  necessary  first  to  prove  it  can 
never  be  dangerous. 

IT  is  well  known  that  on  every  question,  the  lawyers  are 
about  equally  divided,  as  is  seen  in  the  present  case,  and 
were  we  to  act  but  in  cases  where  no  contrary  opinion 
of  a  lawyer  can  be  had,  we  should  never  act. 
12.  168. 

MY  long  and  intimate  knowledge  of  my  countrymen, 
satisfied  and  satisfies  me,  that,  let  there  ever  be  oc- 
casion to  display  the  banners  of  the  law,  and  the 
world  will  see  how  few  and  pitiful  are  those  who  shall  array 
themselves  in  opposition. 
12.  184. 

HISTORY,  I  believe,  furnished  no  example  of  a  priest- 
ridden  people  maintaining  a  free  civil  government. 
.     .     .     In  fifty  years  more  the  United  States  will 
contain  50  million  inhabitants,  and  fifty  years  are  soon  gone 
over. 
14.  21. 

ON  the  whole,  his  (Washington's)  character  was,  in  its 
mass,  perfect,  in  nothing  bad,  in  few  points  indiffer- 
ent; and  it  may  truly  be  said,  that  never  did  nature 
and  fortune  combine  more  perfectly  to  make  a  man  great, 


194 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

and  to  place  him  in  the  same  constellation  with  whatever 
worthies  have  merited  from  man  an  everlasting 
14.  50.  remembrance.  For  his  was  the  singular  destiny 
and  merit,  of  leading  the  armies  of  his  country 
successfully  through  an  arduous  war,  for  the  establishment  of 
its  independence ;  of  conducting  its  councils  through  the  birth 
of  a  government,  new  in  its  forms  and  its  principles,  until  it 
had  settled  down  into  a  quiet  and  orderly  train;  and  of 
scrupulously  obeying  the  laws  through  the  whole  of  his  ca- 
reer,  civil  and  military,  of  which  the  history  of  the  World 
furnishes  no  other  example. 

MERCHANTS  have  no  country.    The  mere  spot  on 
which  they  stand  does  not  constitute  so  strong  an 
attachment  as  that  from  which  they  draw  their 
gains.     In  every  country  and  in  every  age,  the  priest  has 
been  hostile  to  liberty.     He  is  always  in  alliance  whh  the 
despot,  abetting  his  abuses  in  return  for  protection  to  his 
own. 
14.   119. 

HOW  can  expedition  be  expected  from  a  body  which 
we  have  saddled  with  an  hundred  lawyers,  whose 
trade  is  talking? 

14.  310. 

AFTER  all  men  of  energy  and  character  must  have 
enemies ;  because  there  are  two  sides  to  every  ques- 
tion, and  taking  one  with  decision,  and  acting  on  it 
with  effect,  those  who  take  the  other  will  of  course  be  hos- 
tile in  proportion  as  they  feel  that  effect. 

15.  109. 

195 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

THE  Confederation  of  the  States,  while  on  the  carpet 
before  the  old  congress,  was  strenuously  opposed  by 
the  smaller  States,  under  apprehensions  that  they 
would  be  swallowed  up  by  the  larger  ones.    We  were  long 
engaged  in  the  discussion;  it  produced  great  heat,  much  ill 
humor,  and  intemperate  declarations  from  some 
28.  167.     members.    Dr.  Franklin  at  length  brought  the  de- 
bate to  a  close  with  one  of  his  little  apologues.  He 
observed  that  "at  the  time  of  the  Union  of  England  with 
Scotland,  the  Duke  of  Argyle  was  most  violently  opposed  to 
that  measure,  and  among  other  things  predicted  that,  as  the 
whale  had  swallowed  Jonah,  so  Scotland  would  be  swallow- 
ed by  England.     However,"  said  the  Doctor,  "when  Lord 
Bute  came  into  the  government,  he  soon  brought  into  its 
administration  so  many  of  his  countrymen,  that  it  was  found 
in  event  that  Jonah  swallowed  the  whale."    This  little  story 
produced  a  general  laugh  and  restored  good  humor,  and  the 
article  of  difficulty  was  passed. 


196 


APPRECIATIONS   OF 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN,  1859 

I  REMEMBER  being  very  much  amused  at  seeing  two 
partially  intoxicated  men  engaged  in  a  fight  with  their 
great  coats  on,  which  fight,  after  a  long  and  rather 
harmless  contest,  ended  in  each  having  fought  himself  out 
of  his  own  coat  and  into  that  of  the  other.    If  the  two  lead- 
ing parties  of  this  day  are  really  identical  with  the 
*i.xv.  two  in  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Adams  they  have 
performed  the  same  feat  as  the  two  drunken  men. 
But  soberly,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the  principles 
of  Jefferson  from  total  overthrow  in  this  Nation.     .     .     . 
/The  principles  of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions  and  axioms 
of  free  society,  and  yet  they  are  denied  and  evaded,  with  no 
small  show  of  success-/  One  dashingly  calls  them  "glitter- 
ing generalities."    Another  bluntly  calls  them  "self-evident 
lies,"  and  others  insidiously  argue  that  they  apply  to  "Su- 
perior Races."     These  expressions,  differing  in  form,  are 
identical  in  object  and  effect — the  supplanting  the  principles 
of  free  government,  and  restoring  those  of  classification, 
caste  and  legitimacy.    They  would  delight  a  convocation  of 
crowned  heads  plotting  against  the  people.     They  are  the 
vanguard,  the  miners  and  sappers,  of  returning  despotism. 
We  must  repulse  them,  or  they  will  subjugate  us.    This  is 
a  world  of  compensation//and  he  who  would  be  no  slave 
must  consent  to  have  no  slavey  Those  who  deny  freedom 


IX 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves,  and,  under  a  jus^ 
God,  cannot  long  retain  it/  All  honor  to  Jefferson — to  the 
man,  who  in  the  concrete  pressure  of  a  national  struggle  for 
independence  by  a  single  people,  had  the  coolness,  forecast, 
and  sagacity  to  introduce  into  a  merely  revolutionary  docu- 
ment an  abstract  truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times, 
and  so  embalm  it  there  that  to-day  and  in  all  coming  days 
it  shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling  block  to  the  very  har- 
bingers of  reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  SENATOR 
GEORGE  F.  HOAR 

IF  WE  want  a  sure  proof  of  Thomas  Jefferson's  great- 
ness it  will  be  found  in  the  fact  that  men  of  every 
variety  of  political  opinion,  however  far  asunder,  find 
confirmation  of  their  doctrine  in  him.  Every  party  in  this 
country  to-day  reckons  Jefferson  as  its  patron  saint  .  .  . 
The  mighty  figure  of  Thomas  Jefferson  comes  down  in  his- 
tory with  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  the  one  hand 
and  the  title  deed  of  Louisiana  in  the  other.  .  .  .  More 
than  any  other  statesman  down  to  his  time — more  than  any 
other  statesman  that  I  can  think  of — save  Lincoln  alone — 
he  had  a  steadfast  and  abiding  faith  in  justice,  righteousness 
and  liberty  as  the  prevailing  and  abiding  forces  in  the 
conduct  of  States,  and  that  justice  and  righteousness  were 
sure  to  prevail  where  any  people  bear  rule  in  perfect  liberty. 
He  accepted  this  doctrine  with  an  unhesitating  confidence. 
He  never  failed  to  proclaim  it  on  all  occasions.  For  it  he 
was  ready  to  encounter  unpopularity,  poverty,  if  need  be. 
imprisonment  and  exile.  Upon  it,  as  on  a  cornerstone,  he 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  republic.  .  .  .  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son was  one  of  those  men  who  can  differ  from  hemispheres, 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

from  generations,  from  administrations,  and  from  centuries 
with  the  perfect  assurance  that  on  any  question  of  liberty 
and  righteousness,  if  the  opinion  of  Thomas  Jefferson  stand 
on  one  side  and  the  opinion  of  mankind  on  the  other,  the 
world  will,  in  the  end,  come  around  to  his  way  of  thinking. 
(I-  vii.).  

THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  JAMES  C. 
CARTER,  LL.D. 

THE  LEADING  feature  in  the  mind  and  character  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  firm  and  undoubting  belief 
in  the  worth  and  dignity  of  human  nature,  and  in 
the  capacity  of  man  for  self  government.    It  seems  to  have 
been  inborn ;  but  whether  inborn  or  communicated,  it  ruled 
his  life,  it  burst  from  him  like  the  peal  of  an  anthem  when 
he  came  to  pen  the  immortal  Declaration    of    Independ- 
ence.    .     .     .     (2.  vii.). 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  CHARLES  W. 
NEEDHAM,  LL.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  COLUMBIAN  UNIVERSITY 

INSTITUTIONS"  it  has  been  said,  "are  the  lengthening 
shadows  of  great  men."     .     .     .     It  is  well  therefore 
that  at  times  we  go  back  to  the  original  Declaration— 
the  springs  from  which  have  flowed  the  rivers  that  refresh 
and  benefit  mankind.     .     .     .     Jefferson     .     .     .     believed 
profoundly  in  the  education  of  all  the  children  in  the  State, 
of  rich  and  poor  alike,  in  the  fundamental  or  elementary 
courses  of  instruction  at  public  expense.     .     .     .     Writing 
to  a  friend  in  France,  in  later  life,  upon  the  subject  of  fit- 


XI 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

ting  one's  self  for  public  life,  and  especially  for  the  duties 
of  a  legislator,  he  said  in  substance :  Go  among  the  people, 
lounge  upon  their  beds  that  you  may  see  how  hard  they  are ; 
eat  their  food  that  you  may  be  able,  if  possible,  to  put  some 
meat  in  their  kettle  of  vegetables.  In  higher  education,  then, 
we  should  use  to  the  greatest  extent  possible,  the  method 
of  original  research.  Let  the  student  of  engineering  learn 
and  establish  himself  in  the  laboratories  and  workshops 
where  "things  are  done !"  Let  the  student  of  history  learn 
some  things  from  the  men  who  are  making  history.  .  .  . 
But  this  strange  man  was  always  looking  out  for  picked  men 
to  serve  the  State;  not  necessarily  in  public  life,  but  in  all 
those  higher  walks  that  make  the  higher  civilization.  And 
he  believed  there  was  material  for  high  and  noble  service 
among  the  poor.  He  would,  therefore,  have  free  scholar- 
ships in  these  colleges  for  the  poor  man's  son.  .  .  .  How 
was  the  selection  to  be  made?  "Select  students  who  shall 
have  exhibited  at  the  elementary  schools  the  most  pro- 
nounced indication  of  aptness  of  judgment  and  correct  dis- 
position" .  .  .  the  last  thought  is  Jefferson's  reason  for 
education — "the  preservation  of  liberty."  How  these  men 
loved  liberty!  They  knew  its  value,  for  they  paid  the  price 
of  it.  (4.  vi.). 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  ANDREW  J. 
MONTAGUE 


GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA 


THIS  is  not  a  controversial  occasion.       The  political 
philosophy  of  Mr.  Jefferson  will  take  care  of  itself. 
Its  power,  and  majesty,  and  simplicity  find  con- 
firmation in  Patron's  statement  that,  "If    Jefferson    was 


XII 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

wrong,  America  is  wrong.    If  America  is  right,  Jefferson  is 

right."     .     .     .     He  studied  agriculture,   forestry, 

5.  i.    education,  art,  and  science.    He  could  tie  an  artery 

or  set  a  fractured  leg.    He  was  alike  at  home  with 

the  music  of  his  violin,  and  the  "music  of   the    spheres." 

.     .     .     He  saw  the  taper  of  learning  which  he  lighted  grow 

in  volume,  and  within  its  rays  he  saw,  as  if  penciled  with 

letters  of  a  finer  light,  a  motto  often  quoted  and  written  by 

him,  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 

free." 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  J.  W.  ATKINSON 

EX-GOVERNOR  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA 

TRUE  statesmanship  is  the  masterful  art.     Poetry, 
music,     painting,     sculpture,     and     architecture 
please,  thrill,  and  inspire,  but  the  great  statesman 
and  diplomatist  and  leader  in  thought  and  action  convinces, 
controls,  and  compels  the  admiration  of    all    classes    and 
creeds.    Logical  thought,  power  of  appeal  and  tact- 
6.  i.     fulness  never  fail  to  command  attention  and  respect. 
It  has  always  been  thus,  and  it  will  unquestionably  so 
remain.    Many  really  able  and  brilliant  men,  however,  lack 
balance,  and  the  faculty  of  calculation.    They  are  too  often 
swayed  by  emotions,  and  their   intellectual   powers,  which 
otherwise  might  exert    a    controlling  influence,  are    thus 
weakened,  and  often  result  in  failure.    True  greatness  in  the 
man  is  gauged  by  what  he  accomplished  in  life,  and  the  im- 
press he  left  upon  his  fellow  man.    It  does  not  consist  of 
one  act  or  even  of  many,  but  rather  their  effect  upon  the 
times  in  which  he  lived,  and  how  long  they  endure  after 
the  actor  is  gone  from  the  throng  of    the  living.     .     .    . 


Xlll 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

However  gifted  one  may  be,  he  cannot  win  conspicuous 
laurels  in  any  calling  or  avocation  if  he  be  deficient  in  tact- 
fulness.  The  man  who  best  understands  human  nature, 
knows  how  to  approach  people,  and  possesses  the  art  of 
leading  them,  is  the  one  who  will  invariably  have  the  largest 
following  and  will  possess  the  greatest  amount  of  influence 
over  &is  fellows.  .  .  .  The  successful  leader  in  legisla- 
tive bodies — he  whose  name  is  recorded  on  the  legislative 
journal  as  the  author  of  the  most  important  measures  which 
are  enacted  into  laws — is  without  exception  that  member 
who  is  tactful,  thoughtful,  industrious,  and  sincere.  It 
makes  no  difference  how  great  his  natural  endowments  may 
be,  if  he  is  wanting  in  these  elements  his  success  will  be  re- 
stricted to  a  narrow  sphere;  and  the  greatest  of  these  is 
tactfulness.  The  world's  great  tacticians  are  few.  In  Amer- 
ica I  can  mention  but  three  who  are  deserving  of  first  rank — 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Henry  Clay,  and  James  G.  Elaine — 
these  three,  and  the  greatest  of  these  was  Jefferson,  as  he 
seemed  to  have  learned  in  early  life,  more  than  any  of  his 
compeers,  that  a  little  management  will  often  avoid  resist- 
ance which  a  vast  force  cannot  overcome,  and  that  it  is 
wisdom  to  grant  graciously  what  he  could  not  refuse  safely, 
and  thus  conciliate  those  whom  he  was  otherwise  unable  to 
control  .  .  .  Through  his  great  genius,  transient  ques- 
tions were  often  transformed  into  eternal  truth.  .  .  . 
Military  chieftains  often  win  immortal  renown  as  the  result 
of  a  single  important  battle,  and  often  flash  like  rushlight 
stars  across  the  sky  of  history.  But  this  is  not  true  of  men 
like  Jefferson  and  others  of  his  class.  They  grow  into 
great  characters  and  they  build  monuments  to  their  mem- 
ories which  the  tooth  of  time  cannot  destroy.  There  is 
nothing  ephemeral  or  evanescent  in  the  makeup  of  their 
records.  They  build  not  for  a  day  nor  a  year,  but  for  the 
centuries. 


xiv 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  JOSEPHUS 
DANIELS 

EDITOR,  NEWS  AND  OBSERVER,  RALEIGH,  N.  C. 

MR.  JEFFERSON,  more  than  any  man  of  his  day,  ap- 
preciated the  mighty  power  of  the  printed  page. 
Indeed  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  man  of  any 
age  appreciated  so  truly  its  capacity  to  create  public  senti- 
ment. He  more  than  any  of  his  famous  contemporaries  un- 
derstood that  the  man  imbibes  what  he  reads  more 
1 8,  iii.  than  what  he  hears  .  .  .Freedom  was  to  him 
a  religion.  He  hated  anything  thaThindered  man's 
liberty  to  think,  to  write,  to  speak,  to  do.  ...  Why  did 
Mr.  Jefferson  maintain  silence  when  unjustly  accused,  and 
why  did  he  prevent  the  prosecution  of  men  who  slandered 
him?  The  answer  is  found  in  his  own  words.  He  pro- 
foundly believed  that,  while  a  free  press  would  often  wound 
and  temporarily  injure,  ten  thousand  times  more  evil  would 
follow  censorship  or  prosecutions  than  to  trust  to  the  innate 
sense  of  the  public  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false,  and, 
before  Emerson  put  it  into  an  axiom,  Jefferson  was  confi- 
dent of  this  truth:  "A  man  passes  for  what  he  is  worth. 
Very  idle  is  all  curiosity  concerning  other  people's  estimate 
of  us,  and  idle  is  all  fear  of  remaining  unknown.  If  a 
man  knows  that  he  can  do  anything — that  he  can  do  it  bet- 
ter than  any  one  else — he  has  a  pledge  of  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  that  fact  by  all  persons.  The  world  is  full  of  judg- 
ment days,  and  into  every  assembly  that  a  man  enters,  in 
every  action  that  he  attempts,  he  is  gauged  and  stamped." 

"The  press  is  impotent  when  it  abandons  itself  to 
falsehood." — Jefferson. 

Jefferson  was  inherently  an  innovator.  No  tradition, 
no  custom,  no  practice,  no  belief,  that  did  not  appeal 


xv 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

to  his  judgment  and  reason  had  any  sacredness  to  him. 
.  .  .  Wherever,  in  any  decade  in  the  world's  history — 
yesterday,  to-day,  to-morrow — the  pen  is  subjected  to 
censorship,  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jefferson  are  the  bow 
of  promise  set  in  the  heavens.  As  the  years  shall  pass, 
"and  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process 
of  the  suns,"  and  one  by  one  the  nations  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness come  into  the  glorious  light  of  freedom — freedom  of 
conscience,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  to  think,  and  write, 
and  print — the  majestic  figure  of  Jefferson  will  loom  up  as 
the  inspiring  spirit  who  first  breathed  into  the  printing 
press — (theretofore  the  unresponsive  instrument  to  further 
the  decrees  of  kings  and  bind  the  conscience  and  thoughts 
of  men) — the  breath  of  life,  and  made  it  responsive,  sentient, 
virile,  free.  In  this  new  life  that  dates  from  Jefferson,  this 
free  press  has  become  the  champion  of  the  oppressed,  the 
teacher  of  the  young,  the  guide  of  the  mature,  the  comfort 
of  the  aged,  and  the  mightiest  power  for  good  that  blesses 
and  shall  forever  bless  mankind. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  G.  O.  FLOWER 

EDITOR   OF  THE  ARENA 

FOR    FIVE  years  Jefferson  studied  law — studied  it 
exhaustively  after  the  manner  of  a  scientific  student 
who  is  not  content  until  he  has  traced  the  laws  to 
their  origin,  and  has  become  conversant  with  the  conditions 
obtaining  when  great  rulings  were  made  or  precedents  estab- 
lished.   .     .     .     Rapidly  and  darkly  grew  the  clouds 
7.  iii.  that  threatened  war     .     .     .     when  a  company  of  as 
rare  souls  as  ever  risked  life  in  the  defence  of  a  prin- 
ciple assembled  in  Raleigh  tavern.     All  were  members  of 


xvi 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

the  House  of  Burgesses ;  all  were  young  men ;  and  Jefferson 
was  there,  as  he  was  from  the  first  a  leading  spirit  in  the 
revolutionary  meetings.  These  daring  young  statesmen 
framed  a  resolution  with  great  care,  so  as  not  to  alarm 
the  timid  members,  but  which  was  destined  to  bear  mo- 
mentous results.  It  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  and  Inquiry  for  the  dissemination 
of  intelligence  between  the  colonies.  It  was  a  standing 
committee  of  eleven.  .  .  .  Other  colonies  were  urged  to 
appoint  similar  committees.  The  resolution  was  promptly 
passed  .  .  .  this  bold  action  was  followed  by  the  dis- 
solution of  the  House,  but  the  committee  remained  at  the 
capital  and  carefully  prepared  a  circular  letter,  addressed  to 
all  the  colonies,  in  which  the  purpose  of  the  committee  was 
fully  explained  and  an  urgent  invitation  was  put  forth  to 
each  colony  immediately  to  appoint  a  similar  committee,  to 
the  end  that  the  thirteen  dependencies  might  be  kept  in 
close  touch  and  promptly  informed  of  every  overt  act  taken. 

Not  only  did  the  colonies  respond,  but  ere  long  al- 
most every  county,  settlement,  and  village  had  its  commit- 
tee. Their  work  was  indispensable.  At  one  time  they  were 
the  soul  and  strength  of  the  rising  tide  of  opposition,  the 
hope  of  liberty,  and  the  bond  of  union  that  emboldened  men 
and  colonies  to  speak  and  strike  in  a  way  that  would  not 
have  been  thought  of  if  there  had  been  no  sense  of  strength 
through  organization  and  concert  of  counsel. 

If  to-day  in  every  State  and  County  there  were  Stand- 
ing Correspondence  Committees  of  Eleven,  like  the  old  col- 
onial patriots/and  composed  of  the  brightest  and  bravest  men 
among  the  conscience  element,  the  corruption  of  political  life 
incident  to  virtual  government  by  the  corporations  and  the 
exploitation  and  robbery  of  the  people  through  privilege 
and  monopoly  could  be  quickly  checked.  Here,  as  on 

xvii 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

numerous  other  occasions,  the  actions  of  Jefferson  and  the 
young  patriots  of  the  seventies  indicate  a  wise  course  for 
the  apostles  of  progressive  democracy  and  justice  to-day. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  WILLIAM 
JENNINGS  BRYAN 

IT  HAS  been  said  that  it  marks  an  epoch  in  history  when 
God  lets  loose  a  thinker  in  the  world.     God  let  loose  a 
thinker  when  Jefferson  was  born.  )  Carlyle  says  that 
thought   is   stronger   than   artillery    parks  ;   that    thought 
moulds  the  world  like  soft  clay  ;  that  it  writes  and 
8.  viii.  unwrites  laws,  makes  and  unmakes  parliaments  — 
and  that  back  of  every  great  thought  is  love;  that 
love  is  the  ruling  force  in  the  world.)  I  believe  it  is  true. 
/I  believe  that  Jefferson's  greatness  rests  more  upon  his  love 
of  human  kind  than  upon  his  intellect  —  great  as  was  his  in- 
tellect, and  that  he  was  great  because  his  heart  was  big 
enough  to  embrace  the  world^    .     .     .     Jefferson's  memory 
needs  no  marble  or  bronze  to  perpetuate  it.     Erect  your 
monument  as  high  as  you  can,  make  it  of  material  as  endur- 
ing as  you  may,  time  will  finally  destroy  it;  the  years  will 
come  and  go,  and  at  last  that  monument  will  disappear  ;  but 
there  is  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  a  monument  that  time  can- 
not touch,  and  this  monument  growing,  as  the  world  grows, 
increasing  as  civilization  increases,  is  a  greater  monument 
than  the  hand  of  man  can  rear.    And  as  people  measure  the 
influence  of  Jefferson  upon  the  destinies  of  the  human  race, 
they  will  be  convinced  that  the  Bible  is  true  when  it  says 
that  "it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  for  he  gave 

the  largest  measure  of  service  that  man  ever  gave  to  man. 
'~~ 


xv 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  HON.  GEORGE 
GRAHAM  VEST 


T 


JEFFERSON  wrote  his  own  epitaph. 


"Here  was  buried 
THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

Author  of  the 
DECLARATION   of   AMERICAN   INDEPENDENCE, 

of 
The  Statute  of  Virginia  for  Religious  Freedom, 

and 
Father  of  the  University  of  Virginia.^' 

It  is  a  significant  epitaph,  and  worthy  of  him  who 
wrote  it.  Jefferson  had  been  a  member  of  the  Virginia 

House  of  Burgesses  and  of  the  Continental  Con- 
12.  i.  gress,  Governor  of  Virginia,  Minister  to  France, 

Secretary  of  State,  Vice-President  and  President  of 
the  United  States,  but  none  of  these  honors  or  titles  are  up- 
on the  stone  which  marks  his  grave.  True  to  his  convic- 
tions, shown  by  every  private  and  public  act,  the  sworn 
enemy  of  parade,  sham,  and  ostentation,  the  stern  old  Demo- 
crat wanted,  living  or  dead,  none  of  the  tinsel  and  trap- 
pings of  heraldic  pomp  and  glory.  He  named  for  himself 
his  passports  to  immortality — the  rights  of  man,  religious 
liberty,  and  universal  education. 


xix 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  HON. 
WILLIAM  WIRT,  1826 

THE  FINAL  debate  on  the  resolution   (Declaration 
of  Independence)  was  postponed  as  we  have  seen, 
for  nearly  a  month.    In  the  meantime  all  who  are 
conversant  with  the  course  of  action  of    all  deliberative 
bodies  know  how  much  is  done  by    conversation    among 
the  members.    It  is  not  often,  indeed,  that  prose- 
13.  xxii.    lytes  are  made  on  great  questions  by  public  de- 
bate.    On  such  questions  opinions  are  far  more 
frequently  formed  in  private,  and  so  formed  that  debate  is 
seldom  known  to  change  them.    Hence  the  value  of  out-of- 
door  talent  of  chamber  conversation,  where  objections  can- 
didly stated    are  candidly,  calmly,  and  mildly  discussed ; 
where  neither  pride,  nor  shame,  nor  anger  takes  part  in  the 
discussion  nor  stands  in  the  way  of  a  correct  conclusion ; 
but  where  everything  being  conducted  frankly,  delicately, 
respectfully,  and  kindly,  the  better  cause  and  the  better 
reasoner  are  almost  always  sure  of  success.    In  this  kind  of 
service,  as  well  as  in  all  that  depended  on  the  power  of 
composition,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  as  much  a  master  magician 
as  his  eloquent  friend  Adams  was  in  debate. 


xx 


APPRECIATIONS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  HON.  JOHN  B 
STANCHFIELD 

IN  HIS  public  life  of  upwards  of  forty  years,  covering 
the  entire  range  of  preferment  from  the  humblest  to 
the  highest,  two  things  stand  out  with  great  promi- 
nence ;  he  never  made  a  speech,  he  never  waged  a  war 
.     .     .     he  left  the  Presidency  at  the  end  of  his  second 
term  with  the  admiration  and  affectionate  regard  of 
14.  i.    seven  millions  of  people.    The  free  school,  the  free 
church  and  our  free  government  are  largely  owing 
to  his  untiring  zeal  and  industry.     .     .     .     While  the  bat- 
tle was  raging  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  against  the  right 
of  the  first  born  male  to  inherit,  his  opponents,  under  the 
leadership  of  Pendleton,  pleaded  that  the  eldest  son  might 
at  least  take  a  double  share:     "Not,"  was  Jefferson's  re- 
ply, "until  he  can  eat  a  double  allowance  of  food  and  do  a 
double  allowance  of  work."    "My  purpose,"  said  Jefferson 
afterwards,  "was  instead  of  an  aristocracy  of    wealth  to 
make  an  opening  for  an  aristocracy  of  virtue  and  talent." 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  BY  HON.  HENRY 
GEORGE 

JEFFERSON  is  a  pole  star  among    political    philoso- 
phers because  he  based  his  politics  on  the  eternal, 
self-evident,    fundamental   truths   that  all   men   are 
created  equal  and  free  and  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
creator  with  certain  inherent  and  unalienable  rights, 
1 6.  i.    among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.' 


xxi 


MASTER  THOUGHTS  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 


RESOLUTION— 1809— ADOPTED  BY  THE 
SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRE- 
SENTATIVES OF  VIRGINIA 

SIR:      We  have  to  thank  you  (Thomas  Jefferson)  for 
the  model  of  an  administration  conducted  on  the 
purest  principles  of  Republicanism ;  for  pomp  and 
state  laid  aside;  patronage  discarded;  internal  taxes  abol- 
ished; a  host  of  superfluous  officers  disbanded,  the  mon- 
archic maxim   "that  a  national  debt  is  a  na- 
17.  398     tional  blessing"  renounced,  and  more  than  thirty- 
three  millions  of  our  debt  discharged;  the  na- 
tive right  to  nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  acres  of  our 
national   domain  extinguished;  and  without  the  guilt  or 
calamities  of  conquest,  a  vast  and  fertile  region  added  to 
our  country,  far  more  extensive  than  her  original  posses- 
sions.    .     .     .    You  carry  with  you  the  richest  of  all  re- 
wards, the  recollection  of  a  life  well  spent  in  the  service  of 
your  country,  and  proofs  the  most  decisive,  of  the  love,  the 
gratitude,  the  veneration  of  your  countrymen. 


xxii 


H 


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REC'D  LD-URI 


.80 


w  DISCHARGE 


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01982 


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2-Z 1982 


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JW 


1977 

ic 


U1IH, 


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3  1158  00032  7493 


302 


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